Life equals Attraction over Distance
by Kerreb17
Summary: A collaboration between KuriaKai and I. A science teacher in Gensokyo's human village finds herself caught up with a mysterious young man. How do they deal with life and it's various obstacles? Features 2 Original Characters as the main characters.
1. A Breath of Fresh Air

**Authors' Notes: As was stated in the story descripiton, this is a collaboration between KuriaKai and Kerreb17. Please give credit to both authors and not just me!**

**This tale is sort of like a slice-of-life from a unique view (in our opinion)****, and thus is probably going to be a gentler work. Just thought that we should warn you...**

**For convenience's sake, thoughts are represented by italics.**

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><p>Gensokyo: an odd region filled to the brim with magic, youkai, gods, and other outcast and forgotten creatures. It remains hidden from the outside world due to a powerful barrier, keeping humans from the outside world away and keeping the dangerous youkai in. Despite this, there is a human village that lies in this mystical region. The residents go about their merry ways, shopping, working, and socializing for the most part, like any humans from the outside would. The differences, however, lie in the details.<p>

The harsh summer heat had ceased as Gensokyo entered the fall, being replaced instead by cool breezes and the occasional stray leaf. Unfortunately for the children of the village, this meant that they had to resume their studies.

"It sure is a nice day today." a young lady said to herself with a bright smile on her face. "I can't wait to get back to teaching these young minds! It's been so long!"

Known as Inryoku-sensei by most, Eichi was as vibrant as always as she sauntered down one of the main streets of the village. Her silver hair, which was marked by descending white streaks, flowed down to her knees and formed slightly puffy bangs on her forehead. Always professionally dressed, she wore a short-sleeved untucked white blouse with a silver ribbon attached to the collar, a small black vest with silver buttons that extended down to her waist, a pair of long black slacks which extended down to and covered her black dress shoes. Curiously, the vest did not cover the ribbon, the sleeves, nor the untucked portion of her shirt.

She quickly stepped over to a small fruit stand that she habitually frequents, promptly paying the vender a small sum for a peach. Peaches happened to be her everyday breakfast, which makes sense since they are her favorite fruit. Taking a bite out of it, she continued on her walk towards the school while aimlessly staring off into the sky.

Abruptly, a deafening crash rang out, breaking the tranquil atmosphere of the village. Every head turned to the source and saw the reason for the noise. A man stood beside a stand, surrounded by toppled merchandises and had his hand outstretched. Sprawled on the ground was a girl; she was cradling her hand and blowing on it as though it was freezing.

She wore regular clothing: a blue dress that is frequently seen around the village. The man, however, wore clothing that would make one look twice. A grey haori and black hakama fit in smugly with his shoulder length black hair; the haori and hakama had white stripes on the left side while his hair bore grey stripes near the bottom of his hair. Instead of shoes, bandages covered his feet as well as his hands.

The man looked around him and offered his hands again, only for them to be slapped away by the girl. She stood up and walked quickly into the crowd. Those whom were beside her when she passed could hear her muttering the word 'Cold' over and over again.

The attention on the man soon ceased; and most of the villagers continued their own business as though nothing had happened. Pulling back the sleeves of his grey haori, he picked up the merchandises and pushed them into the hands of the stand owner, who looks at him with raised eyebrows. He placed the stand upright and spoke something to the owner before walking away towards the entrance of the village.

One villager, however, didn't hesitate to chase down this familiar face. Eichi turned towards the entrance of the village, assuming that the mysterious man was trying to flee the scene. She kept thinking to herself that she knew him from somewhere, but that was a problem to be tackled at a different time.

Continuing to nibble on her peach, she glided across the stone pathway at a leisurely pace. School didn't start for another hour, so she didn't have any reason to hurry. Besides, she was on good terms with the school's owner, Keine Kamishirasawa; being late once wouldn't hurt, right?

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" she asked in a loud voice, hoping that he could hear her over the din of the crowd.

For a single moment, he turned and looked at her in the eyes. Tilting his head to one side, he continued down the path, disregarding her while mumbling to himself.

"_I guess he's not in the mood to talk."_ Eichi thought to herself. _"Ah well, I'll just leave him be for now. I could probably get more information from the stand owner anyways."_

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><p>With that, she turned around and started walking back towards the stand that had been capsized earlier. She couldn't shake the feeling, though, that she had met this man somewhere before. He just looked…familiar, for some reason.<p>

"_Maybe he was one of my students?"_ she thought to herself as she took another bite out of her peach. _"No; that's probably not the case. I can't imagine that one of my students wouldn't greet me with a warm smile if they happened to run into me. I wonder who this kid is…"_

Before long, she returned back to the stand. It, as was the case with most of the stands in the human village, had a swarm of people around it eagerly waiting to buy something. These weren't the perfect conditions, but she had two possible goals in mind: the first was to talk to the store owner, while the second was to find the 'cold' girl.

"Excuse me!" she shouted, attempting to make herself heard over the rumble of the village. "Could someone please explain to me what happened here?"

"It is more of a small accident." The stand owner had somehow managed to hear Eichi and said; his voice barely heard over the rumbling. The merchandises, linen cloth and other clothing materials, had been replaced neatly on the now upright stand and business is back to normal. At least that was what it seems to the eyes.

"_Now that I think about it, this probably isn't my business. If it's that important, I'll hear about it after school."_ she thought to herself.

"Well thanks for your time anyways." Eichi replied disappointedly as she turned away from the stand. "I'll be sure to stop by sometime when I'm not so busy."

With that, Eichi continued walking back towards the academy with hopeful heart and good intentions…

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><p>At the school, which is formally named 'Gensokyo Academy' and informally referred to as 'the academy', Inryoku-sensei teaches all of the science courses. The problem with this, however, is that most of the humans inhabiting the village believe in magic more than science. In a sense, they're correct. Gensokyo is a world of magic, whereas the outside world has become overrun by technology and 'natural laws'. Despite this, Eichi does her best to teach the few people that attend her class; which, at the moment, only has five students.<p>

Walking down the corridor, she could see many of the students that she had become familiar with. Unfortunately, none of them reminded her of the black-haired man from earlier. She gave a muted sigh as she entered classroom 117: her homeroom and science classroom.

"Good morning everyone!" she exclaimed with a bright smile on her face as she entered the room. Off to the left, there were two rows of desks: the first had four and the second had three. All five of Eichi's students, which consisted of 2 adolescent girls, 2 adolescent boys, and 1 young woman in her early twenties, were already seated in their desks, all of whom were dressed in a traditional Japanese school uniform. Off to the right, there was a blackboard with several pieces of chalk in the tray. Also, a large teacher's desk was situated between the students' desks and the blackboard. She tossed the peach pit that she had been holding into a small trash bin next to her desk, which at this point is filled about half-way.

"Excuse me, Eichi? May I speak to you for a moment?" Keine's voice sounded from behind her as the students in the room rose to greet Eichi; or in their case, Inryoku-sensei.

Keine wore a royal blue dress with short white sleeves and a drooping red ribbon attached to the collar. A pagoda-shaped hat with scarlet feathers and symbols rested on top of her blue-highlighted white hair. Also, she wore a pair of black dress shoes with a red bow attached to them. All in all, it's a professional yet attractive look.

"If you all will just hold on for a minute, I'll be right back." Eichi said to her students politely. They didn't mind the small distraction, and in fact found it interesting: possibly too interesting. With that out of the way, she followed Keine back out into the hallway.

"Keine?" Eichi asked as she turned around. "It's really rare for you to come in here and ask for me, isn't it? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. How would you like to have a new student in your class? He seems pretty interested in the subject you teach. At least that's what Mokou told me just now." Keine replied and turned to look at the entrance to the academy. "In fact, I could ask him to come here right now. Do you want to meet him first?"

"Actually, I would like to meet him. I'll take whoever is willing to learn." Eichi replied. "As long as he isn't a firebrand like Mokou, I'm sure we'll be able to work with him just fine."

"Don't worry about that; although he might smell like one. Wait here for a while." Keine said and walked over to the entrance of the academy. At the entrance, she tapped on someone outside the view of Eichi, partially due to the position of the person who stood outside the building by the wall.

After a while, Keine stepped to the side and the new student came into the view of Eichi. He wore the exact same clothing as the person responsible for the commotion earlier. In fact, he was the same person.

"Hm?" she said with a quizzical look. "Aren't you that man from earlier? I'm fine with that, but you just don't seem like the kind of person who would take an interest in something like this."

"Have we met before? You sounded as if you had seen me, judging from your choice of words. Wait; are you the one who shouted this morning?" He asked, walking closer and took a good look at Eichi. Keine looked at Eichi and back to the newcomer twice before speaking up, "Well, you two better get back inside; those children are getting rowdy."

As though in response to her words, some sounds could be heard from within the room that resemble the dragging of chairs. "Well, fine with me. Thank you for helping me Keine-san." The man said and proceeded into the room, leaving Keine and Eichi outside.

"Thanks for the visit, Keine." Eichi said as she gave a muted sigh. "I'll see you around sometime, alright?"

"Of course. See you again, Eichi; have a nice day." Keine replied and walked away while the man managed to make himself heard over the ruckus in the room, "Are you coming in, _sensei_?"

At that, Eichi spun back around and entered the classroom. The desks were a little out of place and there were some doodles on the board, but no serious damage had been done. The students didn't have enough malice intent towards Eichi to motivate them to do any worse.

"Let's get back to our seats now, alright?" she asked forcefully as she erased the chalk marks off of the board with a piece of white cloth.

The students quickly returned to their desks, though the subtle sounds of laughter could still be heard amongst them.

"As you can probably tell, we have a new student with us today." she announced as she turned around and walked up to the black-haired man. "Would you kindly introduce yourself to the class?"

He shifted uncomfortably and said after a moment hesitation, "My name is Reihan. Ten Reihan." He waited for a while more before speaking again, "That is all."

He then looked at Eichi for a while as though waiting for her permission to do something, rubbing his dull grey eyes at the same time.

"Well then, Reihan, we welcome you into the class. Go ahead and take a seat, if you will."

Reihan nodded and walked over to the back row, opting to sit at the side.

Eichi turned around and wrote 'F=MA' up on the board in white chalk. There were tiny speaks and clacks, but that's to be expected with these boards.

"Let's see if you all remember anything from yesterday. Can anyone here tell me what this equation means?"

"The amount of force that an object generates is equal to its mass times its acceleration. The more massive the object is and the faster it accelerates, the more force the object generates." Reihan said while supporting his head with his hand, which in turn was being supported by the table. He did not appear to be paying attention as he was staring as though there were nothing in front of him; a blank stare.

"Hm? That's right." Eichi said, slightly surprised. "Can anyone give me an example of where this might have practical use?"

"When an object is being dropped or is on some sort of pulley." Reihan replied and turned to look at the students in the class with a confused expression; as if he had not expected this silence.

The rest of the students began to whisper among themselves. They didn't want to be upstaged by this new guy; it's a typical response to a perceived threat.

"Yet again, you're right." Eichi responded. "I'm a bit surprised. Have you done work in physics before?"

Returning his attention to the front, he replied, "Not practical, only theory studies." After replying, he turned again and stared at the students, this time mumbling something under his breath.

"_I find that hard to believe."_ Eichi thought to herself. _"Nobody here in Gensokyo studies physics; rather, they all study magic. I'll have to keep my eye on this kid."_

"Theory studies? Alright." she responded. "It's good to know that we're all on the same page. Isn't that right?"

Without waiting for a response, Eichi quickly wrote another equation up on the board: 'V=AT+Vo'.

"Today's lesson will be about this equation, so pay close attention!" she said energetically and with a bright smile. She almost failed to notice the curious expression with a tint of excitement shown by the new student…

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><p>The class proceeded in a similar fashion for the remainder of the day. Eichi would ask a question which would be fatefully cut short by a quick answer from Reihan. It seemed that this would be business as usual for this day, at least.<p>

"So what about if the initial velocity of the ball is…"

Abruptly, a loud clang permeated the halls of the academy. The sound, created by a large bell, signalled the end of the school day.

"Well, that's all for today." Eichi remarked as she erased the board. "I hope that you all learned something today. Have a great afternoon!"

All of the students eagerly got up from their desks and bolted out the door, except for one. Reihan stretched himself and laid his head on the desk.

"Reihan, why are you still here?" Eichi asked with a curious look.

"Home burned." He turned his head over and answered. His stare reminded Eichi of another person, one that she couldn't quite remember. He raised his hand, rubbed his eyes again and turned over, facing the wall instead.

"Your house burned down?" Eichi asked with a hint of concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." he responded in a monotone voice. "I don't need any help."

"Alright then." she remarked as she walked out of the room. "If you need anything let me know. If not, I'll see you tomorrow."

Eichi quickly made her way to the staffroom to talk with Keine. The room was very simply designed: it had one large round table in the center and a series of mailboxes lining the back wall. There, Eichi found Keine sitting at the large table and talking to another person who is formally known as Fujiwara no Mokou. Wearing light brown shirt along with dark red overalls, Mokou's first impression on anyone around this part was not a very impressive one. Charms had been randomly place on her overalls and even her light violet hair had charms tied into it.

"Eichi? Are your lessons finished?" Keine asked when she noticed the teacher in the room.

"Yes, I'm finished for today." Eichi replied. " Keine, may I ask you a question? Actually, it's for both of you."

At her words, both Keine and the guest looked at each other first before looking back to Eichi.

"What is it?" they both asked simultaneously.

"Reihan had said that his house was burned down. I would like to ask if Mokou was responsible for it." Eichi said while pointing at the girl. Keine coughed once and the girl, Mokou, shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, you see Eichi…" Keine started but was silenced by Mokou with a wave from her hand.

"That guy, Reihan is it? He sort of…frightened me and I burned his home down by accident; I did not even realise that his house was there."

"Frightened?" Eichi responded inquisitively.

"He just appeared out of nowhere when I was looking at a weirdly shaped building. My first reaction was to blast it with a fireball, but that didn't go as planned. The building caught fire, which he somehow put out after a while. I am curious how he did it, though, because the fire just seemed to extinguish itself when he ran into the building."

Eichi cast an odd glare at Mokou, one that might be intepreted as an attempt to note the stupidity in her actions.

"That's about it, Eichi." Keine concluded with a sigh. "The reason why I said that he might smell like a firebrand. About why he might be interested in 'sciences', well…"

"He mentioned something about 'fire out of thin air', 'pyromaniac' and something about 'chemical properties' when he stared at me."

"In the end, Mokou managed to tell him about you teaching 'sciences' and he just asked her to take him there."

"But I never thought that it was a house." Mokou noted. "It looked strange; its criss-crossed woods and some cloths formed some kind of crude shelter."

"Keine-san? Are you there?" Reihan asked and walked into the room, caught sight of Mokou and said, "You again. Care for round two?"

At his words, Mokou looked at Keine, who shook her head, and then looked back to Reihan with a disinterested look on her face.

"Maybe next time." Mokou responded nonchalantly. At that, she walked out of the room.

"Pyromaniac..." Keine remarked with a small smile. "Well then. Reihan, is it? Do you have any idea on what you are going to do? Or maybe where are you going to stay, now that your house is a pile of ashes?"

He stared in Keine's direction and shook his head.

"I have an idea." Eichi suggested after awakening from a state of quasi thought. "You can stay with me for now, if you wish."

"No thank you, I'm fine. I can make due..."

"Even if it's only your first day, you should know better than that!" she playfully scolded. "Let me rephrase that. You're going to stay with me for the time being."

"Huh?" Reihan responded. "Like I said, I'm fine. I don't need it."

"Nonsense! You're coming with me!" she responded as she slung her arm over her shoulder and forcefully led Reihan out the door. "It'll be fun!"

Reihan turned over to look at Keine, mouthing the word 'Help' while being dragged out of the room.

"What have I gotten myself into...?" Keine muttered to herself. "I can only imagine how this is going to turn out..."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

8 May, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: Drumrolls, Trumpet honking, Gong smashing. Let us welcome an entirely new fanfiction to grace the website, this time with twice the fun! And maybe twice the tears. Still, I wonder what the hardest part here is. I know, difference in time zone, that's for sure.<strong>

**Kerreb17's Notes: Kai is right; the timezone difference is a big factor. Since we're literally on opposite sides of the world, getting a chapter done promptly will definitely be an issue in the future. Regardless, we'll try and get updates in as frequently as we can, though I can't guarantee anything at the moment.**

**Anyways, we both hope that you enjoyed it and will keep reading! You will, won't you? *pleading eyes***


	2. A Taste of Gensokyo Hospitality

**Authors' Notes: We have a small warning for you before you begin. There is Spanish in this chapter, and there probably will be for most of the story. It is spoken normally, like an English quotation, but it is translated in brackets "como esto" [like so]. They are rough translations, because literal stuff wouldn't make too much sense. It's purpose will be revealed later, but I'm sure that you all can garner some sort of idea about why it is there.**

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><p><em>"I have an idea." Eichi suggested after awakening from a state of quasi thought. "You can stay with me for now, if you wish."<em>

_"No thank you, I'm fine. I can make due..."_

_"Even if it's only your first day, you should know better than that!" she playfully scolded. "Let me rephrase that. You're going to stay with me for the time being."_

_"Huh?" Reihan responded. "Like I said, I'm fine. I don't need it."_

_"Nonsense! You're coming with me!" she responded as she slung her arm over her shoulder and forcefully led Reihan out the door. "It'll be fun!"_

_Reihan turned over to look at Keine, mouthing the word 'Help' while being dragged out of the room._

_"What have I gotten myself into...?" Keine muttered to herself. "I can only imagine how this is going to turn out..."_

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><p>The village, for the most part, is surrounded by a dense forest: more commonly known as the 'Forest of Magic'. It is said to be filled with carnivorous magical trees, blood-thirsty youkai, and cursed magicians ready to consume any unwitting humans that passes by. These rumors are mostly based on superstition, but that doesn't stop the villagers from believing them.<p>

"And we're home!" cried Eichi playfully as she stopped in front of a small house on the outskirts of the village. In view of the Forest of Magic, Eichi's house has only one story, faded white walls, a black roof with a large skylight on the right side, and black trim around the two visible windows. The entrance, a dark-brown oak door, faces out towards a nice clean lawn that quickly turns into a stone pathway leading straight into the village.

"It's nice to be away from all of the bustle. That's why I live out here. It's not too far into the city, but not too far into the forest." she explained.

"Is there a house? I can't see very well in this light." Reihan responded and walked up right beside Eichi, rubbing his eyes again. "And I said that I can manage back then; why must you drag me out here?"

"I'm not going to let one of my students be homeless! That would be unethical of me." she replied frankly. "Wait, you really can't see it? Do you suffer from night blindness?"

"I don't know how 'night blindness' came about but no, I'm born with weak eyesight. Anything outside five meters is as good as asking me to close my eyes at it. Now then, since you drag me out here, sensei, why don't you show me where I would stay?" Reihan replied and walked in front of Eichi, stopping at the door and looking back at her.

"Well you said that you couldn't 'see very well in this light', and..." she paused. "...never mind. It's not really my business, is it?"

At that, Eichi opened the door in one grand motion and walked inside. For the most part, the rectangularly-shaped insides of the house were kept very neat and organized. There was a kitchen area off to the left, featuring a sink, a small stove, a utensil rack for knives and pots, and an ice chest that was filled with, obviously enough, ice; though it was filled with things besides ice as well. On the right side was a rectangular table that could probably accommodate no more than 6 guests, the same skylight from outside which was conveniently positioned over the table, and a dark-brown oak door. Straight ahead were two more oak doors equally spaced apart from each other on the wall.

"There are only three rules that I have in this house, and I will expect you to follow them." Eichi stated as she glided briskly into the small kitchen area. "The first is self-explanatory: do not destroy or damage anything in the house. I hope that this won't be too much of a problem for you."

"Woe betide whoever who does that here; I'll keep my heart beating." Reihan replied and added in a softer voice, "Unless they come."

"How poetic." she remarked tersely as she grabbed a large knife off of the kitchen rack and placed it near a large sheet of interwoven bamboo. "Wait...who are 'they'?"

"Did I say my thoughts out loud? If that is the case, nothing that matters at the moment." Reihan quickly responded, close the door and sat down on one of the chairs by the table.

"I hope you like fish, because that's what I'm making tonight." she noted in a lively voice as she pulled a red snapper out of the ice chest. "Anyways, the second rule is: do not invite or let anyone into my house who I do not approve of first. Yet again, this shouldn't be too hard of a task for you."

"Crossed my heart. If you want an even better oath, I got another." Reihan replied and begin to fiddle around with a pendant shaped like a crescent which he pulled out from his clothes. "And yes, fish is always a part of my diet."

"No, I don't think I need anything greater than your word." she responded as she brought the large cleaver down against the snapper's head, creating a loud cracking noise. "I think you'll find that I can be very trusting."

"I truthfully think that I could."

At that, she placed the cleaver back on the knife rack and grabbed a smaller, more standard knife. She began to filet the fish, cutting it into infinitely thin strips.

"This brings me to my third rule, which is the most important of them all. Never, and I mean NEVER, go in that door over there." she stated fiercely with a deadly serious look on her face. She was pointing with her knife at the door on the back wall behind Reihan. "That is probably the only thing that will infuriate me, and I never get angry. You've been officially warned."

"And I usually thought that warnings are bad. Okay, I'll stay out of it but I have a small request to make." Reihan said and kept his pendant.

"Hm? Let's hear it then." she responded as she placed the fish in some dishes off to the side. They had been sitting there since earlier this morning.

"If, sometimes in the night, there is any noises from where I am staying. Please, let just say I beg you, do not care about it. Just plainly ignore it as though nothing is out of the ordinary. May I have your word?"

"You have my word. I'll respect your wishes." she replied with a sincere smile. "I'll probably be too busy to notice it anyways..."

At this, she brought the two plates over, placing one in front of Reihan and one on the other side of the table. The meal was thinly-sliced pieces of red snapper in some sort of clear mixture, probably a broth of some sort.

"Enjoy!" she proclaimed in an elated voice as she took a seat across from Reihan. "Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu." Reihan replied and a quiet voice rang out behind him, "Yes, yes. Itadakimasu."

Reihan motioned for Eichi's attention and said, "I forgot to mention. When I say night, I mean as long as the sun is not visible in the sky. That could include rain or any other weather pattern that might block out the sun. Since night is an everyday occurrence, I used that as an example."

As he said that, his eyes appeared to be looking at his side and back, as though he wanted to indicate something. After a while, he started on the meal placed before him. It tasted of an odd mix of fish, various fruit flavors that he couldn't quite pin down, and...sake maybe?

"That's curious." she responded as she swirled the fish slices around on her plate. "In fact, I'm a bit...intrigued. You mustn't be human then, am I right?"

Almost as soon as the words came out of her mouth, her face immediately turned a deep and rash scarlet.

"Oh gods, I'm sorry!" she blurted out while waving both of her hands back and forth. "There I go again making outrageous assumptions like a petulant child. Forgive me for my rudeness."

"It's okay, I'm used to that. You know, you're going to knock over your plate soon if you keep waving your hands like that." Reihan said and continued eating.

Eichi stopped herself with a deep sigh of relief and focused back onto the matters at hand.

"So...do you have anything you want to ask me? Anything at all?"

Reihan held up the plate, which was emptied of any remains of the foods placed on it beforehand, stood up, and went over to the kitchen counter.

"No. Not that I could think of at this point in time..." he replied while cleaning the plate. "...Actually, do you know where I can get some cloths? I failed to get any; it is as though they are all the rage these days. Any stalls that I go to are usually emptied of quality cloths by the time I get there."

"I'm sure we can find some if we look hard enough. I always make a shopping trip on Fridays, so we can go look tomorrow if you want." she remarked as she continued to swirl the food around on her plate. She hadn't eaten any of it yet.

"Tomorrow is Friday…New moon…I think I'll pass on the trip. Maybe next time?"'

_"New Moon?"_ Eichi thought to herself. _"That's odd. I've never heard of a kid being allergic to the new moon..."_

"Thinking out loud again?" she asked. "That's fine, just tell me what you want and I'll..."

Her speech was interrupted by a series of knocks at the door. Eichi doesn't have many visitors except for one habitual guest.

"Hm...hold on a sec." she continued. "I wonder who it is..."

She got up from her seat and walked over to the main door, opening it with a swift jerk.

"Eichi!" cried a lunar rabbit as she hopped through the doorway. She was wearing a royal blue skirt covered slightly by an untucked short-sleeved white shirt with a red business tie. She had two seemingly crumpled rabbit ears coming out of her extremely pale violet hair. She also has bright red eyes, but those who manage to see that for themselves usually end up having fits of lunacy.

"Reisen!" Eichi responed in turn with a hug.

"¿Cómo has estado hoy?" [How have you been today?] asked Reisen in a foreign tongue.

Eichi's face immediately turned a bright scarlet. She detached from the hug and continually cut her hand over her neck as if indicating for Reisen to shut up.

"¿Eh? ¿Qué pas..." [Eh? What hap...] she paused upon noticing Reihan. "Oh..."

"Seems like that person was right…although technically it should not have happened." Reihan said to himself. It seems that he was oblivious to the girls as he stared at his pendant again while muttering to himself, loud enough for the two girls standing at the door to hear.

Eichi quickly breathed a sigh of relief, calmly placing her hands back at her sides after shooting Reisen a cautious glare.

"Here's your package Eichi." Reisen whimpered with a distraught visage as she put a medium-sized rectangular package down on the dining table. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, no harm done." she responded optimistically. "Would you like to stay for a while?

"Actually, Eirin said I could have the night off after I finish deliveries, so I'm free for a while.

"Great! You can meet my new student too, if you like." Eichi responded gleefully as she walked over to Reihan and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Reihan, we have a guest."

He turned around and for a split second, his eyes, particularly his irises, seems to be white instead of its usual grey. He blinked immediately after that, the irises returning to their wolf grey color and asked, "A guest? Friend of yours, I presume?"

_"There's definitely something abnormal about this kid. Everything about him is odd."_ Eichi thought to herself upon noticing the sudden change in eye color. _"I'll have to keep a close eye on him. I don't want another anomaly in my project..."_

"Actually, yes. Reisen Udongein Inaba is a dear friend of mine."

"It's a pleasure to meet you...Reihan was it?" Reisen asked, scanning the young man from top to bottom. "It's rare for Eichi to have visitors, so what brings you here?"

"Actually, it really is a long story. Nice to meet you, first and foremost. However, if you would excuse me; both of you," he said, kept his pendant again and added, "Someone is waiting for me. I'll see you again soon…Reisen. You too sensei, I'll be back later."

After he said that, he walked past Reisen and Eichi and out of the door, the sun throwing shadows across the floor of the house.

_"So much for keeping track of him. I don't really feel like chasing him..."_ Eichi thought to herself with a sigh. _"Oh well, he said he'll be back soon, so I'm not too worried."_

"Sorry about that earlier..." Reisen said apologetically.

"Estás bien. Nos podemos chatear ahora sin interrupción si quieres." [You're fine. We can chat now without interruption if you want.] Eichi added, switching back to the foreign tongue.

"¿Eh? ¿Por qué no hablamos como esto cuando él estaba aqui?" [Eh? Why didn't we talk like this when he was here?] Reisen asked with a confused look on her face. "¿Tienes secretos?" [Do you have secrets?]

"Sólo unos pocos..." [Just a few...] Eichi added with a smile before passing her plate to Reisen. "¿Tienes hambre? Por favor, come esto." [Are you hungry? Please, eat this.]

"Ah, gracias." [Ah, thanks.]

Reisen quickly grabbed the meal and began to eat it voraciously. It seems that she hadn't had dinner yet; either that or Eirin was punishing the poor rabbit again. Eichi looked on with a motherly smile, watching the young lunar rabbit eat.

"¿Pues…cómo es el proyecto tuyo? ¿Ya lo has terminado?" [So...how's your project going? Have you finished it yet?] Reisen asked after finishing Eichi's dish.

"Tuve un pequeño problema ayer, pero estoy seguro que puedo resolverlo fácilmente." [I ran into a problem yesterday, but I'm sure that I can fix it easily.]

"¿En serio? ¿Puedo verlo? Estoy un poco curioso..." [Really? May I see it? I'm a bit curious...]

"Por supuesto." [Of course.] Eichi responded with a fair grin. "Pues...no hables a nadie sobre eso. ¿Me explico? [However...don't speak to anyone about this. Are we clear?]

"Puedes confiar en mí. Nunca te traicionaré." [You can trust me. I will never betray you.]

With that, Eichi walked over to the door behind the table, opened it, and warily walked inside with Reisen in tow before shutting it off from the world of unwelcome eyes...

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Reihan was walking towards the human village when someone standing by the edge of the village caught his attention. He wore clothing that is not native to Gensokyo: a jet-black jacket over a white shirt, completed with dark blue pants. The person stared at Reihan through his eyes, which were red and partially hidden behind his long fringe.<p>

Reihan cursed silently before walking over to the person and giving him and odd glare.

"Sorry. How long have you been waiting?" he asked in a monotone voice.

"Not too long. In fact, I just woke up. How are you faring in this land?" The person asked as he pulled out a deck of cards from his jacket.

"I'm doing alright so far. There have been some surprises, but it's nothing that I can't handle."

"Well that's good to hear, I guess. So...do you know anything about this?" the man asked, holding the deck out in front of Reihan. "It was addressed to you, though I'm surprised that someone would actually send something to you. It's as though she knew you were here."

"Wait...how did you know it's a 'she'?" Reihan replied as he took the cards from the person's hand.

"It was signed; and, unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure that a male wouldn't be called 'Dia'." he added as he stuck his hand back into his jacket nonchalantly.

"Surprising for her to know where I am, actually." Reihan said while pulling out a card from the deck. The card had nothing on its surface, except for a series of words 'Waning: Darkening Moon Cycle' near the top of the card. "So, how is 'it' coming along?"

The person laughs and replied, "Very well indeed. Still, we required more time; and time is not exactly on your side. Truth to be told, you probably would have reached the end of your current life before we could have finished it."

"Not that I need it for myself anyways." He said as he slid the card back into the deck and started walking back to the house. "When can we meet again?"

"Any time before you die would be acceptable, but certainly not tomorrow. It's a new moon tomorrow night. Meeting then is out of the question."

"I do not know whether to curse or thank her for bringing me here. Still, maybe it is time for me to visit her. Perhaps this will be the last time we meet each other. Give my regards to the rest of them."

"I will. If that's all, I hope to see you again…" he paused, giving a sly grin. "...in the afterlife."

Reihan continued walking and kept the deck of cards into his pockets, eventually moving out of sight of the man. The night air grew colder every second as he marched.

"Still, where would she be tomorrow?" he muttered to himself. "The shrine, perhaps? Maybe I should ask sensei about her. That reminds me…I don't even know sensei's name."

After about only two minutes of walking, he reached the house and shook his head.

"Three things to do on my list…and I am running out of time." he muttered again as he placed his hand on the doorknob.

He opened the door and entered the silent house, the sound of the door closing ringing in the night air for a moment before vanishing as quickly as the sun had set in the sky...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

16 May, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: Examinations are here again! That means lesser time with electronics and lesser time for another chapter. Makes me want to cry but good result is a must; otherwise it is time to say goodbye. And I hoped that you people out there, yes you all, would continue to read this and, of course, point out any mistakes so that we could improve.<strong>

**Kerreb17's Notes: I hope you like Spanish, because you're going to be seeing a lot of it! It's not perfect - I acknowledge that - but I'm making due with what I have up here in my skull. No Google Translate for me! No sir!**

**Other than that, I think we've had a good bout of mystery here. The plot thickens...? (Pretty much like my soup: it's pretty darn runny anyways...)**

**Ah well, we hope that you enjoyed this installment! We'll see you next time, deal? *shakes* Alright! See you next chapter!**


	3. Latent Consequences

**Authors' Notes: We hope you like longer chapters, because this is one of them. It's like an ocean of description, so we hope you brought your swim trunks. There's more Spanish too, by the way.**

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><p><em>Reihan continued walking and kept the deck of cards into his pockets, eventually moving out of sight of the man. The night air grew colder every second as he marched.<em>

_"Still, where would she be tomorrow?" he muttered to himself. "The shrine, perhaps? Maybe I should ask sensei about her. That reminds me…I don't even know sensei's name."_

_After about only two minutes of walking, he reached the house and shook his head._

_"Three things to do on my list…and I am running out of time." he muttered again as he placed his hand on the doorknob._

_He opened the door and entered the silent house, the sound of the door closing ringing in the night air for a moment before vanishing as quickly as the sun had set in the sky..._

* * *

><p>The door opened with an elongated creak, echoing throughout the room. 'Quiet' wouldn't be the right word to describe the feeling, but the word 'deserted' might. Reihan, in the bottom of his gut, honestly couldn't tell if anyone was home.<p>

_"But I swear I was gone for less than twenty minutes."_ Reihan thought to himself. _"There's no way that it could be..."_

Speaking of his gut, Reihan felt a violent stirring of hell-knows-what deep inside him. For the many who have never experienced this before, it would be most accurate to describe the sensation as somebody using a blender to thoroughly puree your insides. In other words, it's not pleasant at all.

_"Damn! Not now! __Too…early for this!__"_ he shouted at himself inside his mind. _"I just have to...get to the sink..."_

Without hesitation, he dashed toward the kitchen. In a sort of delirious wobble, he somehow managed to muster up enough strength to accidentally capsize the table and four of the chairs surrounding it. Needless to say, there was a deafening crash and, afterwords, the room looked like the estranged victim of a hurricane. That didn't matter to him right now though, because all he had to do was get to the sink.

Limping, he grabbed the edge of the sink and forced himself over it. His left hand was clamped over his mouth while his right hand was causing a slight indent on the edge of the sink.

"Guh..." was the only sound that escaped his lips. Someone, however, decided to open up the blood gates and unleash all hell on the marble sink.

The thick red fluid ran down the edge of the sink and down the drain, but not before it left a trail of scarlet devastation in its wake. Not only was it coming from his mouth now, but it was dribbling down his crimson-stained chin as well.

He swiped the back of his hand against his chin, wiping off a little bit of the bloody residue. He couldn't get it all, of course, but at least it was a start. He slumped down to the ground and raised his sleeves to wipe off the remaining blood weakly.

_"Let's hope this doesn't happen again soon..."_ he thought to himself soberly. "_I can only lose so much blood, __not to mention__..."_

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a high-pitched yelp from behind him. Bad timing, huh?

"¡Eichi! ¡Eichi! ¡Ten prisa!" [Eichi! Eichi! Hurry!] the voice, which at this point could be assumed to be Reisen's, cried out in terror. "¡Ayuda a Reihan! ¡Sangrará hasta la muerte!" [Help Reihan! He's going to bleed to death!]

"No estoy de bromas ahora, Reisen. Por favor, déjame en paz." [I'm not in the mood for jokes right now, Reisen. Please, leave me alone.] Eichi's voice responded, sounding a little bit peeved for some reason.

"No te estoy bromeando!" [I'm not kidding you!] Reisen responded angrily. "Ven aquí y ayúdale a él!" [Come here and help him!]

Reisen ran up to Reihan, who at this point was lying on the ground, while avoiding the various debris that had been strewn across the floor earlier.

"Reihan! Are you alright?" came the moon rabbit's voice with a tone of despair.

"Reisen? I'm fine, just some blood loss…" Reihan trailed off and covered his eyes with his hands.

Reisen took a step back and looked at the situation. Reihan, in simplest terms, had vomited some blood. It's anyone's guess _why_ it happened, but that's not the issue right now.

"Do you feel like you're going to vomit again?" Reisen asked.

"N-no. I felt as if…black…" Again, he did not finish his sentence as his hand drop limply to his side and the only movement observable was his breathing.

"Reihan?" Reisen asked as she jostled him gently. She was used to seeing this kind of stuff with Eirin and her patients, so there wasn't really that much apprehension after the initial scare.

"Pues...qué debemos hacer con esto?" [So...what should we do with this?] came Eichi's voice from immediately behind Reisen. Apparently, she had taken advantage of the confusion to sneak up behind Reisen.

"AH!" Reisen yelped in surprise. "¡No me sorprendas como esto!" [Don't surprise me like that!]

"La culpa es mía. Creí que me estabas bromeando." [I'm to blame. I thought that you were joking with me.] Eichi said in a monotone voice. "Ya lo siento." [I regret it already.]

"Creo que estas trabajando demasiado mucho." [I think that you're working too much.] Reisen warned with a deadpan look on her face. "Necesitas evitar de trabajar en tu proyecto si Reihan quiera vivir en tu casa. Encontrarás algunos problemas si no sigas mi aviso..." [You need to avoid working on your project if Reihan wants to live in your house. You will run into problems if you don't heed my warning...]

"...Y ahora tengo más problemas que puedo resolver en este momento. Por favor, quiero que salgas de aquí." [...And I now have more problems than I can fix right now. Please, I want you to leave.]

"Si tú quieres eso..." [If that's what you want...] Reisen replied in a melancholy tone. "Todavía no te traicionaré. Sabes por qué." [I still won't betray you. You know why.]

The moon rabbit got up and gave Eichi a sort of piercing glare. For obvious reasons, they didn't make eye contact; Eichi got the message though. Reisen was disappointed, and for good reason. You can't just shrug off a friend's plea for help like that, no matter how busy you are. It's not good ethics.

"Gracias por la medicina...y por todo." [Thanks for the medicine...and for everything.] Eichi said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. She knew it wasn't going to work, but she at least had to try.

"De nada. Hasta luego." [It's nothing. See you later.] Reisen remarked as she exited the door, shutting it with a light touch.

_"He'll be fine. I don't know why Reisen is so worried though." _Eichi though to herself as she picked up Reihan; the easiest way of course is to place one arm around the waist and one on backs of the knees. _"It's not like he's going to die or anything. This sort of stuff happens all the time. Still...maybe I should take a little extra precaution with him."_

With that, Eichi somehow managed to get Reihan into the bedroom: the right door of the two on the back wall. It should be noted, at this point, that these two doors do not have doorknobs but rather swing open when pushed. It's extremely convenient, to say the least. That being said, the doors do not have locks on them either. It might be a problem if a thief gets in somehow, but Eichi's never really had to worry about that. After all, she can take plenty care of herself.

Her bedroom is small and of simple design. The entrance door hugs the left wall, which is home to a small walk-in closet. Off to the right is a large white mattress with no supporting framework to hold it off of the wooden floor. It is covered by a simple black blanket which doesn't hesitate to keep those who happen to sleep beneath it warm throughout the coldest of nights. Also, there is a large rectangular window along the back wall, allowing sunlight, or moonlight at this time of day, to enter into the normally dark room unobstructed. A pair of blinds lies off to the side of the window, but she rarely uses those.

"You're not really that heavy, are you?" she spoke softly to the currently unconscious Reihan. "That's fine. You can sleep in my bed tonight. I won't mind one bit, so don't you worry."

At that, Eichi placed Reihan in the bed and pulled the black cover up over him. Despite the blood, which at this point hadn't completely dried yet, there was something peaceful about him. Well, it's peaceful in relation to the rest of the evening's events. That counts for something, doesn't it?

"Good night, Reihan." she said in a motherly tone. "You're going to be quite a handful, I can hold on a second, alright?"

Eichi got up from her crouching position and walked back into the closet, making sure not to make too much noise; even if it wouldn't wake him up, she decided to take the extra precaution. The closet is simple, there's a rack for her 'fancy' clothes on one side and other assorted clothes to the left.

First, she carefully took off her dress shoes and placed them neatly in the corner, while her slacks followed suit; these first two steps were always the hardest for her for some reason. She hung up her black vest and slacks on a special hanger next to her four other pairs, which were colored white, purple, navy blue, and khaki brown. Next, she tossed her white blouse into a small pile in the corner of the closet, currently home to two other pairs of blouses that had met a similar fate. With that out of the way, Eichi grabbed a silver nightgown off of a hook on the door and quickly slipped it on without too much trouble. This was the only one that she owned, and the only one that she actually needed.

She exited the closet and sat back down next to Reihan, presumably keeping watch over the now asleep man.

"What an interesting night, huh?" she asked. "We'll be sure to talk about this tomorrow. You know that I have a lot of questions that I want to ask you, so you better get ready. Regardless, let's try not to have stuff like this happen again, deal?"

She stood vigil over Reihan for the rest of the night, making sure that he didn't start coughing up blood again or something of the sort. You have to treat your guests right, after all!

* * *

><p>Warm...fuzzy...a feeling akin to being covered by something soft which resembles a blanket; that's what Reihan awoke to.<p>

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling while the ability to think and move slowly returned to him. There was very little moonlight coming into the room, but there was enough for him to make out his surroundings.

"_What happened…oh right, it acts up again. It always acts up at the wron..._" His thoughts ended abruptly when he turned his head to the side and saw sensei asleep while, he noted curiously, sitting upright.

"_Is there anything she can't do?_" He pushed the blanket that was over him away and sat upright with some difficulty.

"_Looks like I lost a bit too much blood this time. Oh well, I'm starving._"

Reihan leaned against the wall and propped himself up using the wall as a support. He took a look around the room and wondered briefly how he got here when he had fainted outside.

"_Looks like I'll have to ask sensei when she wakes up…"_ he thought to himself. "C_ome to think of it, isn't there school today? I wonder what will happen if she oversleeps…_"

Reaching a door, Reihan slowly reached out a hand and halted when he realized something was off.

"_Doesn't she install door knobs here? Weird, I wonder if it opens when I push it..._" The door swung outwards and caused Reihan to fall to the ground with a thud. He had unintentionally pushed the door with his entire body weight, which wasn't a very smart idea.

"_This might be a good time for pain to register in my head._ _I just hope that the pain doesn't come at the wrong time..." _Reihan thought as he pushed himself up and looked around the house. It was in the exact same state as it had been before he passed out.

"_If I had not known any better, I would have assumed that a thief had gotten in here somehow…_"

He walked over to the table and propped it upright, along with a single chair in which he promptly sat down.

"I wonder when I'll cease having to move…" Reihan muttered to himself while resting his head against the table. "I better leave a note somewhere or I'll have to deal with a paranoid teacher later."

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and, seeing that there weren't any writing materials nearby, went into the kitchen, pulled out a small knife from the knife block and carefully 'wrote' on the paper using the slashes as though it was ink.

After a while, he returned the knife back to the block, placed the note on the table under the deck of cards he received earlier, opened the door, and walked out of the house, letting the doorclose without too much noise.

* * *

><p>The autumn sun had begun to stream through the large bedroom window. As if by instinct, Eichi immediately awoke and stood up with a bit of discomfort. Screw formalities, her ass hurt.<p>

"I really need to drop the habit of going to sleep on my ass." she remarked out loud. "That's just something I'll have to fix in the fu..."

It was then that she realized that Reihan was gone. He had, for lack of a better term, disappeared.

_"Note to self: remember to nail him to the mattress next time."_ she thought to herself. _"On second thought, it's less stress on me if he takes care of himself...no, I shouldn't think that way. I've got to make sure he doesn't hurt himself, especially after last night..."_

Not especially concerned, Eichi entered the closet with refreshing zeal: today just felt like a day to wear white. With that in mind, she started her morning routine by taking off her nightgown and slipping on one of four white blouses, the other three lying in a pile in the corner. Next came the white slacks and vest, the only variant items of the group. The last step for her, however, is the hardest: putting on her dress shoes.

She grabbed the pair of shoes and sat down on the hard floor with anything but grace. If anything, it looked like she just flopped down on the ground and landed hard on her butt: definitely not graceful. With that stretch of mediocrity out of the way, Eichi attempted in vain to slip on the shoes. As usual, however, it was a...painful experience. Yet again, you might as well just throw formalities out the window.

"I never can get these damn things on." she noted out loud with a wince. "You'd think that I'd be used to this after all this time, but things don't really change that much do they?"

After a couple of moments of unrest and numerous profanities, she finally managed to get herself fully dressed and out of the closet. It sure took long enough, didn't it?

"Reihan?" she called as she went back out into the foyer. "Are you ou...hm? What's this?"

Eichi grabbed a small note written in...were those slashes? The white paper was lying out on the main table, which she noticed had been placed upright along with one of the four previously capsized chairs. The note read:

'Sensei, if you are reading this, I would most likely be at a lake I've seen a few days ago. In a forest I believe. I would be fine. See you at school and thank you for the bed but I think you'll need it more next time.'

"Crazy kid. He's going to get himself killed..." she muttered to herself as she crumpled the note in her hand and successfully tossed it into a small bin next to the door. "Not much I can do about it though, so I'll just sit back and take it in stride."

Next, she attended to the toppled chairs. They hadn't been broken and the floor hadn't been scratched, which was a plus. Out of the corner of her eye, Eichi spotted the box that Reisen had dropped off last night. It had found its way to the ground as a result of last night's tumult. The small brown box hadn't sustained that much damage and it was still sealed tightly by the crescent-moon-shaped sticker, a trademark symbol of Eirin Yagokoro's pharmacy/medical clinic.

"Right...there you are." she spoke to herself as she picked up the box and ripped the seal off of it. "I was almost out, too. Lucky me."

Upon opening the package, Eichi pulled out one of nine small green vials with a black 'V' on it. 7 of them had large black letters on them (D, L, Ma, Mi, J, V, S) while the remaining two simply had black stars. Without much thought, she popped the top off and knocked it back.

"I should probably get going. Who knows how long it's been since he left?" she spoke to herself under her breath as she walked into the kitchen. She grabbed a small flat pack of cash and shoved it into her pocket, making sure that all of the bills didn't make an unsightly bulge. She had been there before.

"So that's about everything that I need to...hm?" she said as another object of interest caught her eye. "Now who knocked you over?"

She picked up a black cane that had fallen from its spot next to the door. It was of simple-design: it was just a piece of wood with a curved handle and some chips near the end which were probably caused by years of wear and tear. It hadn't seen any action in years, but you never know when you'll need it.

She placed the cane up against the wall, this time in a position where it wouldn't fall over, and opened the door. After a quick breath of fresh air, she walked outside with a rare spring in her step.

_"Oh, I need to lock the door! I should have remembered yesterday, but I didn't. Why do I always keep forgetting that?"_

With a swift motion, Eichi spun around and shut the door smoothly. She pulled out a small golden key and fumbled around with it for a while before successful infiltrating the lock and turning the tumblers.

"Oh well, we aren't all perfect..." she said out loud to nobody in particular as she pulled the key out of the lock. "If we were, life wouldn't be any fun. Besides, how else would I have gotten to be a teacher to such wonderful kids?"

Eichi, with her everyday morning routine finally taken care of, started back down the path towards the human village with the sun slowly peaking over the canopy of the trees behind her...

* * *

><p>"Hmm, fish really hate me now, don't they?" Reihan said as he walked through the forest path back to the village. Having tried and failed at fishing at the lake, he had resolved to try something new next time he came back.<p>

After a while, he reached a glade where a few charred pieces of woods are still lying about.

"_Huh? When did I…" _Reihan paused as he realized what he was doing. _"I really have to change my habit of returning here. After all, it was burned down._"

He placed the makeshift rod and basket beside him as he reached out and touch the charred woods. A few seconds of silence passed before he turned, picked up his items and walked back out of the glade.

"_Now I am ridden with guilt…" _he thought to himself as he called back the memories of his now-ruined house._ "Innocent trees being burned down by her..."_

_"_Oh well, have a nice nap in there, I'll come for you when I am asleep." Reihan spoke out loud to the air in front of him as he meandered back to the village. "Keep watch and don't scare off anyone now_."_

After all, there is class today.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

20 May, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: <strong>I really have nothing to say here. Seriously. Oh, A nice 'Thank You' to Captain Vulcan for reading and reviewing; you have no idea how we had improved on that 'suspense' atmosphere or maybe even a bit of…whatever-we-are-writing-about.<strong>**

**Kerreb17's Notes: I agree with Kai, awesome reviews are awesome. If you like being awesome, you should leave a review. Please? Pretty please with STAWBERRY CRISIS! on top?**

**Unlike Kai, however, I have some stuff that I'd like to say (no offense mate, I just like writing this stuff).**

**First off, I know that descriptions can be boring. For guys especially, clothes changing scenes can be either enchanting or flat-out bland. I'm hoping I didn't hit the latter, but I'm asking you all to use your imagination. That's not too much to ask, right? *twinkling eyes***

**SCHOOL TOMORROW? MORE EDUCATION IN THIS FANFIC? I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION! (Just sit tight and the magical girls will be right with you, sir. In the mean time, would you like an ice-cold beverage?)**

**Also, feel free to check out both of our other works! Those would be "Last in the Line" (KuriaKai) and "Deaf to all but the Darkness" (yours truly). Can't help but shamelessly advertise, right?**

**Well that's all that we have to say this time around. Hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you all next time! Chapter 4 awaits!**


	4. Question and Answer

**Authors' Notes: Not too much to mention this time around, except we have a bit of legal stuff in this chapter. For those of you who are unaware of how the courts work, most of the technical stuff is explained in Kerreb17's notes at the end. It's nothing too bad, but we don't want the readers to be confused.**

**Also, we delve into character history (without Keine's help, rest assured) and this is yet another long chapter. You have been (ever so slightly) warned.**

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><p><em>"Hmm, fish really hate me now, don't they?" Reihan said as he walked through the forest path back to the village. Having tried and failed at fishing at the lake, he had resolved to try something new next time he came back.<em>

_After a while, he reached a glade where a few charred pieces of woods are still lying about._

_"Huh? When did I…" Reihan paused as he realized what he was doing. "I really have to change my habit of returning here. After all, it was burned down."_

_He placed the makeshift rod and basket beside him as he reached out and touch the charred woods. A few seconds of silence passed before he turned, picked up his items and walked back out of the glade._

_"Now I am ridden with guilt…" he thought to himself as he called back the memories of his now-ruined house. "Innocent trees being burned down by her..."_

_"Oh well, have a nice nap in there, I'll come for you when I am asleep." Reihan spoke out loud to the air in front of him as he meandered back to the village. "Keep watch and don't scare off anyone now."_

_After all, there is class today._

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><p>Mornings in Gensokyo, for some reason or another, always bring out the worst in humans. This can present itself in various ways, such as anger, violence, profuse sadness...and the list goes on. The conditions in the human village don't help the situation very much, seeing that everyone has their own agenda and, for the most part, don't give a lick about how anyone else feels about it. It's a sad condition with no cure, though people have tried making remedies before...<p>

"I am so tired…maybe I should take a nap after class." Reihan yawned as he walked into the village. Everything seemed normal: the morning crowd around the stores, and people bustling about in their own business attested to this fact. It was as if there were no worries in the area, but there's always bound to be some sort of trouble...

"Hello? How are you?" Reihan tapped the shoulder of a shop owner nearby.

"You again? What do you want this time?" the shopkeeper replied in an annoyed voice. "I've told you again and again that I have no idea what you're asking for."

"A simple fabric, that is all I ask; is it THAT foreign to you?" Reihan replied.

"Look here, either you decide to buy something from me or you can go away." the man said as he narrowed his eyes. "I have a business to run."

"Never mind." Reihan replied. "See you."

With that, he turned away from the stand and started on his way to the academy. Along the way, however, he spotted someone whom he thought was rather amusing at this point; amusing in the sense that she liked to play 'games'.

"Awake, sensei?"

Eichi, who was currently strolling along aimlessly, immediately tuned into Reihan's voice. She stopped for a second and looked around, unable to discern the location from which the voice had come.

"Reihan? Is that you?" she asked as she scanned the bustling crowd surrounding her. "Where are you?"

"Right behind you." he replied as he appeared in front of her. "How's morning?"

"Wait...you said that you were behind me, but you appeared in front of me." she added in a confused voice.

"Yes, that's what happened. Fun, isn't it?" Reihan added. "But like I was saying: How's morning?"

"It could always be worse, but I'm glad it's not." she replied as she stuffed her hand in her pocket, feeling around for a 100 yen note. "Speaking of which, I have some things that I need to talk to you about in private."

"Hmm, sure. I could spare a bit of time after school to talk; I have something else planned for tonight, though. Let's hurry or we will both be late." Reihan placed both his hands in his pocket and started off backwards while grinning at Eichi.

"If by 'late' you mean 'on time', then yes." she responded with a bona fide laugh as she followed him.

"I actually consider being on time 'late' for my standard. It keeps me on schedule." Reihan noted. "Oh, I should tell you now that I would be fine on my own now, thank you very much." Reihan added.

"Hm?" Eichi added with a broad inflection. "What, may I ask, brought about this sudden change in plans? Did your house get repaired already?"

"Well...let's talk about it after class, shall we?" Reihan asked.

"I'm fine with that." replied Eichi was she kept stride with him. "Don't forget though, I have to do my weekly shopping today."

Suddenly, an orange blur streaked across Eichi and Reihan's path. Eichi, with little effort, caught the flying object with her left hand and promptly took a bite of it.

"Thanks for the peach!" she relayed to a stand owner who had thrown the peach at her. "I'll give you the money when I make my rounds later, alright?"

"No problem!" the man yelled back. "I'll be waiting patiently!"

Eichi gave a short laugh before turning back to Reihan.

"Some of these people are lunatics, but I don't mind." she noted with a sincere smile after taking another swift bite. "Imagine if every fruit seller decided to throw peaches at me every day. Wouldn't that be great?"

"It really depends on how the individual sees things." he said and tightened the bandages he wears on his hands. "However, for everything there is a good and bad side to everything, so I wouldn't dwell too much on something like this. Still, I'd like to see how you are going to catch every single one of those peaches."

"With enough hard work and practice, anyone can do pretty much anything. In fact, someone might be able to fly to the moon someday soon. Wouldn't that be great?" she remarked as she stared up into the sky. "Speaking of which, shouldn't we be near the academy by now?"

From the outside, the academy doesn't look extremely impressive. In fact, it looks almost exactly like the buildings surrounding it. The dark brown shingled roof complements the beige walls well, but the academy itself doesn't really stand out. The front door, which is made out of stone, is the only thing that sets it apart from the rest of the street.

"Oh, we're here; how time flies when you are having 'fun'." Reihan said as he opened the main door to the academy. After something whistled through the air, he was knocked on the head by a piece of chalk so abruptly that he fell to the ground. A large white mark was etched into the back of his head, providing a strong contrast with his hair.

"Ahh, watch where you throw that chalk please, Keine-san." He muttered loud enough for Eichi to hear while the sound of someone running could be heard.

"Hm? What was that?" Eichi asked as she spun around, looking for any signs of life that could have thrown the white missile; oddly, nobody was in the hall except for the teacher-student pair. "Are you sure that Keine-san would do that? She doesn't seem like..."

"Good morning, Eichi." came Keine's voice as she emerged from a random door in the hallway. "Huh, why are you on the floor, Reihan?"

"Ah, good morning, Keine." Eichi replied as she picked up the errant piece of chalk. "You didn't happen to seen anyone throwing chalk, did you?"

"Ah, I don't think so." Keine replied a little too quickly while Reihan pushed himself off the ground.

"Never mind. I'm fine, actually; it knocked some sleepiness off me."

Turning around, he made a sort of bow with one hand across his chest. Eichi couldn't help but crack an amused smile at this gesture, despite Reihan's seriousness.

"Anyways, nice job catching that chalk." Eichi added jokingly as she took another bite of her breakfast. "If it were a peach, this would have been a lot messier."

Reihan didn't pay any heed to the taunt. Then again, it wasn't made to garner a response anyways. A laugh? Maybe. A verbal response? Not so much.

"Now then, we should head in, sensei. Class is starting."

"I'll be right there. Just go on in and take a seat." Eichi noted, lightly chuckling at her earlier joke. "If anyone asks, I'm checking my mail."

Without a word, Reihan walked into the classroom and took a seat. Eichi, on the other hand, leisurely began walking to the staffroom down the hall.

_"Is it here yet? It better be here, since today's the day she told me it'd be here." _Eichi thought to herself with a smile as she took the last bite of her breakfast._ "I'm tired of waiting for these silly judges to make up their mind. They take too damn long to make simple decisions..."_

A quick peek inside the room revealed that no new mail or packages had arrived for Eichi. Keine's box, in contrast, seemed to be filled to the brim with letters.

_"Of course I don't have anything; my expectations of them are too high. Even worse, Keine continues to get love letters."_ Eichi mentally noted. _"I can't help but be slightly jealous, but that's for a different time..."_

Slightly frustrated and a bit disappointed, she returned back to the classroom in order to begin a new day of scholarly endeavors...

* * *

><p>The school day, up to this point, had progressed rather smoothly. Nothing was out of the ordinary, at least by Gensokyo's standards. Eichi couldn't help but feel relieved at the return to normalcy, which she deemed was due in part to a generally lighter atmosphere in the classroom. Sure, Reihan was still answering most of the questions and aggravating some of the other students, but today just seemed calmer than today.<p>

"...and that's why water is known as the universal solvent." Eichi explained as she took a sip from a small mug near her desk. It was filled with, coincidentally, water.

Abruptly, the clang of the school's single bell resounded throughout the halls. School, yet again, had ended for the day.

"Does anyone have any questions before you all leave?"

An abrupt crash sounded through the classroom as Reihan quickly rose from the ground. Apparently, he had fallen out of his chair.

"Sorry, I fell asleep." he said.

Immediately, his words caused an uproar from the other students. Ignoring the now laughing students, he simply placed his hands on the table and gave a blank stare at Eichi.

"Do you think that I didn't notice that earlier? That's unacceptable behaviour from a student of mine." Eichi remarked with a disappointed look on her face. "Now you owe me some of your time, Reihan. The rest of you are free to go."

After a few moments of scrambling, Reihan picked up the chair he fell from, placed it upright and sat down on it. He supported his head with his hand which in turn was being supported by his elbow on the table. He watched the other students rushed out of the class before turning back to face Eichi once they all had left.

"And, what questions did you wish to ask me, sensei?" Reihan asked.

"First off, I don't appreciate that you were sleeping in my class." Eichi noted vituperatively as she approached Reihan's desk. "I'd like it if you at least listened to what I had to say. Now you're going to delay my rounds and...wait, didn't you say that you had something planned for tonight?"

"Firstly, I apologized already. It's just that days like this make me sleepy and it is only morning. Oh well. Secondly, I did listen to you but I've already learned it before...sort of. Lastly, I do have something planned for tonight but you don't have to bother yourself with it, sensei. It is purely my business. Why don't you head off for your rounds now?" he yawned and placed both hands on his chin to support himself.

"No, I still need to make sure that you aren't up to anything shady. Like I said before, you can find me very trusting if you'll just answer my questions truthfully." Eichi stated as she took another sip of water. "I assume that you're going to give me the same answer for all of my questions, but that doesn't mean that I won't try anyways. With all of that out of the way, why did you run off last night and why did you come home spitting up blood?"

"Shady, huh? Ahaha, you really are interesting. Despite knowing that I am going to give you the same answer, you are still going to try and ask me? Well then, maybe I should respond with some truth then. Right, for your question, I had a meeting with someone. That is why I went out." Reihan paused and yawned before continuing, "And I spit up blood because of an illness, nothing major to worry about. That would be one of the question I would not answer."

"Shady indeed." Eichi noted with a furtive glare. "Then again, that's exactly what I expected; there are things that, as one man said long ago, aren't 'meant for mortal eyes'. With that in mind, what exactly does that pendant of yours do?"

"A limiter, which is really all I can say since I had promised not to say anything about it."

"So it's something that - oh I don't know - limits a dormant power perhaps? That's interesting..." Eichi noted as she took a sip of water. "That brings me to my next question: why are you so concerned about it being a new moon tonight? Is it involved somehow in the release of said limit?"

"Again, I'll skip this since it concerns something else. Any more questions?"

"You're only making this harder on yourself, but I guess that's the way you want it. I can play that way too, you know." Eichi noted with a dismissive wave from her hand. "This final question, however, is the most important. I know that I've asked you this already, but I rescinded the question much too quickly for fear of being rude. I can now see that my thoughts were...justified. Would I be correct in assuming that you aren't 100% human?"

"Well then, sensei, how in the world did you come to that conclusion?" Reihan replied in a smug tone.

"First off, I don't know of any human that can simply walk into a burning house to quell its flames. Second, I don't know of any human whose eye color changes by free will or any other natural biological mechanism. Third, your warning to me about noises last night was too suspicious to be taken for granted. Fourth and finally, you just revealed to me that you have a 'limiter' of sorts which no normal human would need." Eichi reasoned tenaciously. "Add everything together and you get something that is definitely not, for lack of a better term, a ' normal human being'. Am I correct?"

"…You ARE really observant, aren't you? Well then, since you did put in effort to piece together the pieces, I dare say that you should know the truth if you keep on arranging the pieces and placing then together. That's it, I'll yield for your last reasoning; what do you really want to know, in return why don't you answer a question from me?"

"So I was right, huh? I guess learning how to add finally came in handy." she noted sarcastically after a pause before returning back to a more serious mood. "All jokes aside, I have an idea of what I want. That sounds like a fair deal, so I think I'll take you up on it. Fire away."

"...You aren't human either, right?"

"100% human." she responded with a calm tone. "I'm curious, though, as to what made you think otherwise."

"Make sure to feed that curiosity of yours then. It might help you in certain areas, although it might harm you as well. I will not answer as to how I came up with that line of thought, but with that aside, what do you really want to know?" Reihan said and stood up so that he was at eye level with Eichi. It should probably be noted that Reihan is a good bit taller than she is, so intimidation might have been a factor if Eichi was the type of person who was easily frightened. Fortunately for her, she wasn't.

"Well you're right on that account: too much of anything is bad for you. It's good to see someone young who realizes that." she remarked. "But I'll put my request simply: what abilities do you have? If that's too much of a burden for you to answer, you can always owe me a favor for later."

"Mastery over space and spatial dimensions." Reihan admitted tersely. "Since you are a science teacher, you should know what I am trying to say. Well then, if you have nothing else to ask I think I should be going now."

He started for the door without waiting for a reply and stopped at the doorway, turning his head back to stare at Eichi.

"...if you ever need anything, you know that you can come talk to me about it." she noted with a hint of concern. "I feel kind of bad, though, since I assume you were looking for something about me. If it's any consolation, you can glean a lot of information by simply watching what I do and looking at my environment. The best place to hide things, after all, is in plain sight."

Eichi took another sip of liquid refreshment before pulling some money out of her pocket and flipping through it nonchalantly.

"Don't think about it too hard, alright?" she added with a grin.

Reihan stared at Eichi for a while longer before dipping his head a little and walking out of sight.

"Afternoon. No, I was about to go back." he muttered to himself. "Hmm? Nobody's in there. Bye."

_"Hm? Who's he talking to?"_ Eichi thought. "_Never mind, it's nothing that I should be concerned about."_

It didn't take too long for the sound of footsteps to die out, leaving Eichi feeling rather secure. It's not that she feels unsafe thinking with other people around, but she has a bit of paranoia about it anyways.

_"...but I should be concerned about that ability of his, if I can take him at his word on that. Manipulation of spatial dimensions, huh?"_ she thought to herself as she wrote something up on the board. _"That might be just what I need. Maybe..."_

The board, which at one point was a mass of green, was now marred with various streaks of white. The clacks and screeches could be interpreted by some (and by some, we mean Eichi) as music. Just like an instrument, 'practice makes perfect'. A few people would even go as far to say that 'perfect practice makes perfect', but Eichi finds that to be redundant.

_"...no, but he'd be a great help."_ she thought._ "That brings up the ten million yen question: how do I gain his trust? He doesn't look like he's just going to hand it over, unfortunately. Not much I can do then if I don't want to scare him off."_

"Oh well..." she said as she erased the board. "That's something for another day."

With that, Eichi walked out of the classroom and shut the door lightly behind her. Standing out in the hallway, much to Eichi's surprise, was Keine.

"So Keine, how has your day been so far?" Eichi asked as she walked briskly down the hall.

"It's been fair, nothing has been out of the ordinary until just recently." Keine responded.

"...and why would that be?" Eichi asked as she approached Keine. "The building isn't on fire, is it?"

"No, but you have mail." Keine said as she walked into the staffroom.

"Oh really?" Eichi remarked in surprise as she followed suit. "Who's it from?"

"I'm not sure. It's not my job to sift through your mail." Keine replied. "I will admit, though, that this is a rare occurrence."

"There's a first time for everything, I suppose." Eichi noted with a smile as she grabbed the letter out of her mailbox and read the front. "Oh look, it finally came. Good for them."

"I would be grateful if you would translate." Keine said adamantly. "I deserved to know since you dragged me into this."

"Are you serious? All you're doing is giving me a job, that's all." Eichi stated. "But that's fine, it won't hurt anyone."

With that, Eichi carefully opened the white envelope, making sure not to rip any of the contents inside. She quickly opened up the letter and immediately deadpanned.

_To: Jukeisha _[convicted]_ - Inryoku Eichi_

_The court has reviewed your appeal against the sentence of "indefinite imprisonment", court order for "psychiatric rehabilitation", and _the charge of "resisting arrest" _has reached a verdict. Despite your participation through testimony in previous relevant trials, the court has decided to nullify your appeal on the following grounds:_

_1) The heinous nature of the crime_

_2) The ensuing societal disturbance_

_3) The financial costs of both the crime and disturbance_

_4) The persistent threat of irreparable damage_

_Any further attempts to appeal these convictions, unless brought about by different legal procedure, will be immediately discarded._

_Ruled by: Head Judge - Riyuko Akemi_

Keine simply stared at Eichi for a second with a pitiful look. Actually, it had streaks of anger in it as well. In this instance, she was a classic example of an empathetically pissed-off friend.

"That bitch." Keine fumed. "How dare..."

"Watch your tongue, Keine. What could harsh language possibly do to remedy the situation?" Eichi said with flat affect as she stuffed the letter back into the envelope. "Oh well, there isn't much that I can do about it. I'll just have to try again, won't I?"

"Eichi, your appeal just got nullified, again." Keine stated bluntly. "You realize that they're not going to forgive you, so why do you keep trying?"

"I persist on the off-chance that they have a shred of mercy in them." she admitted as she put the envelope in her pocket.

"They don't." Keine contended. "If anything, the last letter they sent you should have proved it to you. They won't change, and they definitely don't expect you to."

"I'm aware of that, but I'm going to make the best of it." she stated as she walked out the door, grinning from ear to ear. "Nothing like a little bit of shopping to take your mind off of things. Have a good day, Keine."

"Wait!"

No response. Eichi had already left the building.

"Damn." Keine muttered to herself. "I swear, sometimes she's more trouble than she's worth."

With that, Keine walked out the building and quickly scanned for Eichi, who was nowhere in sight. Disappointed, she closed the heavy stone doors and walked away, sealing away the academy for the night...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

27 May, 2011

* * *

><p><strong>Kerreb17's Notes: Kai didn't have anything to say this time around, but I have a couple of things that I'd like to mention.<strong>

**So here's the little bit about law that I mentioned earlier. For those of you who are unaware, "Jukeisha" is a Japanese honorific that is given to people who have been convicted of a crime: hence why I put [Convicted]. This merely signifies that Eichi is a convicted criminal of some sort. Also, a nullified appeal basically says that the court holds a sentence (that was previously given to a criminal in a trial) to be accurate and in no need of adjustment; in Eichi's case, the sentence of "indefinite imprisonment" and court order for "psychiatric rehabilitation" (the sentences) were upheld.**

**We actually finished this chapter WAY ahead of schedule, which was nice. I was afraid that we were going to have problems pacing, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Lucky us!**

**If you haven't already, feel free to leave a review for us. We both would greatly appreciate it!**

**Anyways, we hope that you enjoyed this chapter and we'll see you again next time!**


	5. Misplaced Intentions

**Authors' Notes: Nothing of import to note this time around.**

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><p><em>"That bitch." Keine fumed. "How dare..."<em>

_"Watch your tongue, Keine. What could harsh language possibly do to remedy the situation?" Eichi said with flat affect as she stuffed the letter back into the envelope. "Oh well, there isn't much that I can do about it. I'll just have to try again, won't I?"_

_"Eichi, your appeal just got nullified, again." Keine stated bluntly. "You realize that they're not going to forgive you, so why do you keep trying?"_

_"I persist on the off-chance that they have a shred of mercy in them." she admitted as she put the envelope in her pocket._

_"They don't." Keine contended. "If anything, the last letter they sent you should have proved it to you. They won't change, and they definitely don't expect you to."_

_"I'm aware of that, but I'm going to make the best of it." she stated as she walked out the door, grinning from ear to ear. "Nothing like a little bit of shopping to take your mind off of things. Have a good day, Keine."_

_"Wait!"_

_No response. Eichi had already left the building._

_"Damn." Keine muttered to herself. "I swear, sometimes she's more trouble than she's worth."_

_With that, Keine walked out the building and quickly scanned for Eichi, who was nowhere in sight. Disappointed, she closed the heavy stone doors and walked away, sealing away the academy for the night..._

* * *

><p>"Maybe I should ask sensei…"<p>

Reihan stooped down, picked up a pebble and stood up again, throwing the pebble up and catching it on the way down again and again. It was his plan to revisit the site of his burned house; however he realized that something important was not there after rummaging through his pocket. If it wasn't here, then it had to be somewhere else; and he had a slight idea about its where about.

"Still, how should I explain it to her…'I need the cards because someone gave it to me.'? That would be fine but judging from her reactions beforehand..." He missed the pebble and it fell to the ground. "I doubt she would let me go with that. Ugh, I can't think of anything."

Grumbling, he walked along a forest pathway while trying to figure out how to ask a question without rousing too much attention on said item. After a while, he tilted his head up and spotted someone whom he did not want to meet again. The primary reason for that, of course, was a painful past encounter.

He was about to spin around and start walking in the opposite direction when something hit him in the back of the head in the same spot where the white marking had not been fully erased. He turned around and felt, rather than saw, a high velocity missile heading his way and ducked automatically. When the object was directly above him, he reached out, grabbed it and flung it straight to the ground.

"Ouch! Watch it!" the voice cried.

Reihan quickly rose and looked at what he was holding on his hand: a large brown broom with faded yellow bristles. He couldn't help but feel slightly confused at the turn of events.

"You watch it. Are you trying to knock me to hell?" Reihan asked as he threw the broom back to its owner: a kleptomaniac witch named Marisa Kirisame. Wearing a black witch hat over her blonde hair and jet black skirt over a white blouse, Marisa's first impression on anyone was quite accurate: she was an ordinary run-of-the-mill witch.

"Not that I know of, ze." Marisa retorted. "What're you doing here anyways? You lost again?"

Reihan shook his head, turned around and walked towards the building he had departed from this morning.

"Can't I take a walk around this area?" he asked. "What are you doing here? Blasting things again, maybe?"

"It wasn't my fault that you were in the way when I was blasting those fairies. Why then do I feel as if you're being really hostile to me?" Marisa noted as she stood up, dusted her dress and hat, and picked up the broom. "Anyways, nice to meet you again…but this SHOULD be the official meeting instead, ze."

"I can never understand this place, it is somehow a little off in the behaviour of people." he responded while waving her away. Turning back, he saw her hovering in the air and trying futilely to suppress a laugh. "I wonder if that is really funny."

"N-nothing. Your words don't make much sense to me anyways. Oh, but I've got a meeting with someone else. Maybe we'll meet again." She said and flewoff a little higher than the trees in the forest before dive-bombing into the dense canopy.

"Seriously, this place is going to accelerate my death. Hmm, I wonder if sensei is at home right now." Reihan said and walked the rest of the way to the house with no further interruptions.

The sun hadn't fully set yet, but the night was fast approaching. The canopy of the trees blotted out most of the sunlight though, leaving the rocky path difficult to see and navigate on. Throw Reihan's odd blindness into the mix and - well - it was more than troublesome for him.

"_I remember the house being somewhere here, is it? I can barely see anything…oh wait, there's the shape of the house._" he noted to himself as he walked out of the trees and headed toward the house. "_Now that I look at it more carefully, isn't this a garden? Hmm, I think I have to be more attentive to my surroundings._"

Upon reaching the front door, he decided to knock first, just to be polite. After three rounds of knocking, though, he decided that sensei was not home yet, thus he tried to open the door.

"She did install a lock on the main door then. Hehe." Reihan chuckled when he found out that the door is locked. "However, I am lucky that I learned this. No offense now, sensei."

He picked up two thin sticks from the ground beside him, knelt down and begun to pick the lock. However, after some time, the stick broke off and he threw the remains away. Turning around to make sure that no one was looking, he snapped his fingers once and turned the doorknob.

_"Easy as always..." _he noted to himself.

The door swung opened and he slipped inside, letting the door to close on its own as he begins to search for his missing item.

* * *

><p>The streets of the village were crowded, as always. Eichi, who for the most part was a creature of habit, took the same path every day and almost always spent the same amount of money at each place. She knew the shop owners well, though the recognition was not mutual. To them, she was just another regular customer helping to feed their families. It's not a very personal relationship, but it's fine as long as both parties got what they wanted.<p>

"Groceries first, and then I'll check to see if there's anything special that I want..." Eichi spoke to herself. She had a bad habit of doing that, unfortunately.

The main street of the village is filled with cloth, jewelry, pubs, and other non-foodstuff dealers. This is, for obvious reasons, the most populated part of the village at all times of the day. Men come to the bars to spin tales of heroism and bravery, wives get to gawk at the beautiful jewelry on sale, children get to play with toys, and the rest of the population gets to wade through the crowds.

The grocers, however, lie mostly on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately for Eichi, the area lies on the opposite side of the village from where she lives. This never bothered her though, since she had all of the time in the world to shop. This district, since most of the shoppers here buy their food for the week in bulk, is for the most part devoid of bustling crowds.

"Eichi-san! We have your groceries ready!" cried the voice of a shopkeeper, wearing a simple white shirt and khaki slacks. He had next to him a large wicker basket filled with a variety of foodstuffs: large enough to stand up to Eichi's knees when placed on the ground. It had a sturdy handle, which was definitely necessary to carry something of that weight.

"You all actually put it all together for me? That's very nice of you!" she replied in a surprised tone as she pulled the pack of yen out of her pant pocket. "I might have to pay you guys a little bit extra then, if that's alright."

"That'd be greatly appreciated, Eichi-san. Are you coming to the festival this weekend?" he inquired while stroking the budding black beard on his chin.

"Festival...?" she asked as she handed him approximately 10,000 yen; this was a little bit more that her usual amount for groceries. "Which one is that again?"

"Eichi-san, you can really be an airhead sometimes..." he noted as he accepted the cash. "The yearly Harvest Festival is happening this weekend."

"Is that so? Well I'll stop by if I have some free time." she replied, picking up the basket. It was pretty heavy, but she was used to carrying this amount of produce every week.

"Please do. I'm sure that you'd have a lot of fun."

"Maybe I will. Well, I guess I'll see you next week." she replied as she turned her back to the shopkeeper and started walking off. "Have a nice day!"

"You too. Hopefully I'll see you around, then." he replied with a wave. Since Eichi had her back turned to him, the reason why he waved is still up for interpretation.

With that, Eichi had to make her way through the main street. With the large basket, navigating through was difficult to say the least. Keeping people from snatching food out of it was also a major issue, but she did a good enough job of keeping her produce from being stolen.

_"So let's see...didn't Reihan say he wanted some kind of cloth? Maybe I should...no, I have no idea what kind or color he wants, not to mention the fact that he might have already gotten it."_ she reasoned to herself, trying to hear herself think over the din of the crowd. _"Ah well, there's always next week. Besides, I should save my money since I spent a little bit more on food this time around..."_

As predicted, nothing special caught Eichi's eye. She usually spent some time looking through necklaces or for a new vest, but nothing ever really appealed to her. Because of this, the rest of the walk through the main street was fairly uneventful, save the occasional contact with a random shopper. A little bit of skilled crowd navigation put her on the stone road back to her house, which was only a little ways away from the main shopping district.

_"And so we return to the homestead."_ she thought to herself. _"I have to admit, though, I'm a bit glad that I have the house to myself again. I never knew how much I missed that, even if it was only one day."_

Something, however, struck Eichi with a sense of uneasiness as she neared her abode. Nothing overtly seemed to be wrong, but you never can be too careful. Despite the fact that she had a couple of traps set just in case, she couldn't help but feel nervous at what appeared to be nothing.

_"Oh well, it's probably not important."_ she thought to herself as she pulled out the gold key from her pocket. _"I'm probably just too jittery today. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm just on edge, that's all!"_

Carefully, Eichi placed maneuvered the key into the blatantly plain escutcheon. The door, however, nudged open just enough so that she realized it was unlocked.

_"Wait...I swear I locked up this morning."_ she thought to herself. _"I can't be going senile already, so...was I robbed?"_

She placed her basket down on the ground outside before swinging the door open silently and lightly stepping inside. To her surprise, the room was in exactly the same position that she left it. Well, at least she thought it was. The deck of cards that Reihan had left on the table earlier was gone, but Eichi didn't seem to notice them on top of the note this morning in the first place. She must have been too busy thinking about other things.

Without hesitation, she snatched the black cane from its resting place near the door and kept it at her side for a while as she scanned the area around her. None of the doors were open (that doesn't really mean much since they were built to always be closed), none of the food was taken, and none of her medicine was gone.

_"Well, it doesn't look like I was robbed. Even if everything seems alright, I shouldn't make any noise perchance the thief is still here."_ she planned as she gripped the curved end of the cane. _"If I don't hear a noise within ten minutes, I'll assume that everything is all clear. For now though, I should be prepared for anything."_

Reihan, upon hearing the slight creak of the door, froze up. The room, which he had assumed to be Eichi's room since he had woken up there earlier, now seemed like on of the worst places he could be right now; he'd much rather be back at the ruined remains of his house.

"_Well, looks like I am in a bind right now. What should I do? Reveal myself and get beaten up? She looks like she could use that cane really well…oh well, guess I should just try and find my way out from another angle. And damn, why did I hide in here anyway? Why should I even hide? Ehehe...never thought I'll be accelerating my own death here, but it is better than being beaten halfway to death."_

Reihan knelt down and peered through the slightly opened door. At the main door outside, all he could see was a slight silhouette of who he believed to be Eichi. None the less, the evening rays from the sun do not help much, instead half blinding him from seeing the entire room.

"_Here we go._"

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><p>The ten minutes or so had passed slowly for both Eichi and Reihan, but for different reasons. Eichi was keeping vigil, making sure that not even the slightest sound would escape her ears; Reihan, on the other hand, was waiting for a movement of some sort. Vastly different reasons for vastly different people.<p>

_"Alright, that's long enough."_ Eichi thought to herself with a bit of apprehension. _"They either must have left already, are really good at staying quiet, or...I just might be senile. It's odd at such a young age, but a fact of life nonetheless."_

She walked back outside and grabbed the basket from earlier before placing the cane back in its spot next to the door. After promptly putting the wicker basket on the table in the center, she quickly closed the door behind her, loudly resounding throughout the room.

"Ah, dinner time." she spoke out loud to nobody in particular. "It's too bad that I don't have any more guests, or it might give me an excuse to make a nice meal. That's a shame."

She pulled a small green box out of the basket and set it on the table. Inside were a variety of local vegetables mixed together with an oil base of some sort. It might be more familiarly known as a 'salad'. Also inside the box was a small three-pronged object attached to a stick, which was made to stab through food while keeping a respectable level of torque. Again, this might be more familiarly known as a 'fork'. They had been growing more popular in the human village over the years for reasons still not understood. Maybe a certain gapping youkai was to blame...?

"Oh and by the way, any burglars who are still here after I'm finished with my dinner will find themselves - oh, how can I put this - seeing a shinigami earlier than anticipated." she noted out loud with a hint of smugness. " But I have no reason to fear, since there's nobody here. Hey, that was a rhyme! Neat!"

Reihan stared at her through the gap in the door and somehow managed to hold back some laughter.

Content with her inadvertent poetic injustice, she grabbed the fork and stabbed it down into the mix of lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. A satisfying crunch accompanied the greens during their stabbing and during their consumption. It was ironic, to say the least; almost as if the greens were crying out in pain.

"_All right. Maybe I should not disturb her...lunch or dinner? What's the tim- oh, it's evening._" Reihan could have slapped himself; the setting sun that was stillhalf blinding him was obvious enough. He moved his stare away from Eichi and looked at the 'garden' outside the door. If anyone was looking at him right now, they would have swear that his eyes had changed color for a time being.

A few seconds later, however, he experience a feeling that was very uncomfortable; it was just as if something is squeezing him from the inside right now and he felt like vomiting out everything he had eaten for the day. Then, he knelt down and caused the door to flung open before vanishing.

"Ouch! Damn it!"

Reihan had apparently dropped from the ceiling and smacked against the floorboard just in front of the door, which was left ajar. He rubbed his cheeks and looked around him before setting his eyes on Eichi, who had sprung up from the chair with a notably loud 'eep', somehow managing to toss it pretty far back away from the table. Reihan muttered something indistinguishable and waved once while putting on a sincere and noticeably fake smile.

"Ehh...hi there, sensei."

"FFFF-OW! My gods! Don't scare me like that!" Eichi responded loudly with a wince, rubbing her right leg repeatedly with her hands. "What are you doing here anyways? I can't imagine that you're here just to say 'Hi there!'."

"Yeah, about that…do you have any bandages I could use?" Reihan quickly said, not wanting to divulge the real reason he was here.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized that he was indeed in need of bandages; the path that he took just now was not very helpful and althoughhe had a habit of falling a lot, he never realized that his hands were bleeding.

"Sure, I have some bandages." she replied cautiously as she stumbled away from the table, looking at Reihan with a bit of apprehension. "I'd also like it if you didn't bleed upon the carpet. Thanks in advance."

Upon her words, Reihan looks down to his bleeding hands and quickly turned them upright, just in time to stop a drop of blood from leaving his hands and staining the carpet below. He sat upright and placed his bleeding hands on his lap in a way that it would be impossible for any blood to drip onto the fabric.

Any bit of Eichi's grace (or lack of, for that matter) that had existed before was gone. Her face was a hybrid between a grimace and a wince, clearly showing some sort of pain. She wore this expression while hobbling over to the cane's resting place, promptly leaning on it for support.

"Ok. Ok. It's all good..." she muttered to herself after breathing a sigh of relief.

Eichi, with the assistance of her wooden aid, made her way to the kitchen, making sure not to trip over the toppled chair. She opened a small cabinet which happened to be filled with only two things: vials marked with black stars and large strips of cloth bandages. Grabbing the latter, she closed the cabinet with a soft touch and promptly tossed the bandages in front of the currently grounded Reihan.

"Keep the extra; it's not a big deal. What I am concerned about, however, is what you're doing here. Why, I'm being so curious today!" she noted with a hint of enthusiasm. "Of course, you're going to have to explain some things to me. You can't honestly expect me to believe that you came back here just for some bandages."

"Actually, I can. But that's another matter altogether. What do you want me to explain this time?"

"First off, I assume that the door was unlocked when you came here. Why, then, would you hide from me?" she asked with a tone of disappointment. "To be honest, I feel a bit betrayed. Don't you trust me?"

"It is a habit of mine, forgive me if you feel betrayed but I'm not used to trusting hu- I mean, people, easily. And I have reasons behind that which again, Iwill not divulge. And before you ask me your second question; is your right leg okay? It seems…bruised?"

"No, I'm just very sensitive ever since I broke both of my legs when I was a kid. Why else do you think that I'd have this cane?" she pointed out while lifting up the leg of her pants, revealing what looked like a completely normal extremity: no bruises, no scratches, no injuries of any kind. "With that little bit of personal history out of the way, I'd like to get back to my previous point. Let's see how many cliches I can run through in this explanation..."

"Go ahead." Reihan gestured towards the chair that was pushed far away when Eichi had stood up in fright.

Eichi picked up the chair lying on the ground and flipped it over, promptly sitting down in it with a sigh.

"You can trust me, plain and simple. You can talk to me about anything that's troubling you." she began, looking at Reihan with concern. "I simply can't figure out why you're keeping secrets. Maybe it's because you don't want that knowledge to hurt someone. Maybe you're a loner at heart and don't want anyone else involved in your life. Maybe you're trying not to somehow hurt the people you love - gods forbid that I'm on that list. Maybe you've had some bad experiences in your childhood: being laughed at on a constant basis, disrespected by your elders and the people around you, forced to give up whatever aspirations you had as a child, making regrettable decisions...oh, looks like I went into a little too much detail there. Like I was saying, trust isn't just something that's built in a day. I hope that you'll find me to be a very trusting individual in the future, and that I can trust you in the same regard. So, out of the goodness in both of our hearts, help me help you."

"…you can trust me if you want, or you can choose not to if you don't wish to. I don't pay any attention to how people look at me. However, I find myself very difficult to trust someone after a few incidents as well as two of the reasons that you gave. It is true when you said that trust isn't built in one day. And I have a question."

He closed his eyes and raised his head to 'look' at Eichi. "Why are you so keen on finding out why I'm keeping secrets?"

"And for that, I'd have to tell you a story." she noted with an oddly familiar smile. "Do you have a moment?"

Reihan waved his hand in a gesture to ask her to continue.

"Good. I appreciate it. So this is how it went..." she said, leaning back in her chair. "I had a non-human student a while back; this was in the time when I only had two students in my class. She was intelligent, beautiful, and she was extremely fond of keeping secrets from everyone. Not only that, but she had special powers that she rarely flaunted. It was one of her biggest secrets, and I didn't learn about it until..."

She leaned forward in her chair, looking Reihan straight in the eyes.

"...she disappeared. One day, out of the blue, she disappeared. My other student and I spent the whole day searching for her, to no avail. Of course, there was nothing that we could do at the time, so we sat back and waited. The next day, however, we learned that she had been killed by some ruthless spirit in a duel to the death. Needless to say, we were both taken aback and distraught. If only we had known what she was planning to do, we could have stopped it..."

Eichi sat up straight in her chair again and pointed the cane directly at Reihan's face.

"...and that's why I don't want anything to be hidden from me. As you can see, it's not because I'm some nosy son-of-a-bitch who simply wants to find out everything that you love, hate, and keep to yourself; it's because I love my students and I don't want a repeat of her fate. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

"…how do you know it was a spirit that killed her? Have you seen it before?" Reihan asked in a different tone of his voice; it seemed a little higher tone from his voice.

Before Eichi could utter a response, he suddenly stood up and made his way to the door.

"Sorry, I have business to attend to. Have a nice night." And he bolted out the door that was still left ajar, the sun had already set and the stars could be seen in the vast expanse of the night sky.

"Wait! That's not what I..."

Too late; he was already gone.

"...meant. I didn't mean it like that..." she muttered to herself as she got out of the chair and slid it next to the table. "...and I wish he wouldn't run off like that. Next time he comes in here, I swear I'm gonna nail him to the carpet. No regrets."

Sitting down in the now repositioned chair, Eichi continued to consume her salad from earlier. The greens continued to cry out in a voice only slightly different from last time...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

5 June, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: This is progressing to a point where I look at my own story and said, "Sigh, I am spending more ideas on this than the rest." But well, at least there is some progress...I hope people are still reading this.<strong>

**Kerreb17's Notes: Likewise, I hope that people are enjoying the story. I don't have anything to say this time around, so I'll just cut to the mandatory notes...**

**We hope that you all enjoyed this chapter as much as we enjoyed writing it! Don't forget to leave a review! Cheers!**


	6. Start of the Harvest

**Authors' Notes: Delays of the unpredictable variety sprung up through the past weeks and impeded our progress. Sorry for the delay, faithful readers!**

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><p><em>"...and that's why I don't want anything to be hidden from me. As you can see, it's not because I'm some nosy son-of-a-bitch who simply wants to find out everything that you love, hate, and keep to yourself; it's because I love my students and I don't want a repeat of her fate. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"<em>

_"…how do you know it was a spirit that killed her? Have you seen it before?" Reihan asked in a different tone of his voice; it seemed a little higher tone from his voice._

_Before Eichi could utter a response, he suddenly stood up and made his way to the door._

_"Sorry, I have business to attend to. Have a nice night." And he bolted out the door that was still left ajar, the sun had already set and the stars could be seen in the vast expanse of the night sky._

_"Wait! That's not what I..."_

_Too late; he was already gone._

_"...meant. I didn't mean it like that..." she muttered to herself as she got out of the chair and slid it next to the table. "...and I wish he wouldn't run off like that. Next time he comes in here, I swear I'm gonna nail him to the carpet. No regrets."_

_Sitting down in the now repositioned chair, Eichi continued to consume her salad from earlier. The greens continued to cry out in a voice only slightly different from last time..._

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><p>In the rays of the sun, the edge of the Forest of Magic seems to shine brighter than usual, thus forming rumors about it all around the village. At night, however, everything about it seems to change.<p>

The shades of the trees seems to be darker than usual, even the trees themselves seems to be more ominous than before, with the moonlight shining down upon their crowns. Only those who are brave, strong, or just plain ridiculously stupid would venture into the forest at night, not to mention that night time is the business hours of the youkai around the area.

"Great, maybe I am really annoyed but this is ridiculous. How long do you plan to play 'student' in the village?" a feminine voice spoke softly.

Reihan shook his head as he walked along a grass-covered path at the side of the forest. Anyone walking along the same path that night would have nightmares for the rest of their life if they were not the kind to handle really creepy experience; all they would see is a human walking along a path with a silhouette of a young girl trailing behind him.

"Shut up. This is my life now; you had yours the last time. Damn it, that's why I hate new moons. You always manifest right at the worst moments." Reihan pushed himself up a slope and continued on the seemingly hidden path to destination unknown.

"Not my fault. I'm trying to let you have the best of your life. You do know the limit, right?" Reihan stopped and placed his hands to his eyes. The dull grey irises sparkles for a moment before his hand covered them up.

"I…know. At the very best, one year. But I can't find anything relating to my memories here. That is why I hate dying. I suppose you like that feeling?" Reihan added with a slight smile at the silhouette and wiped his hand on his shirt.

"Vastly different opinions for the both of us but I'll agree with you on this. Dying isn't fun at all and I speak that from experience, just like you." spoke the silhouette after a brief moment of silence. "What are you going to do now?"

After another moment of silence, Reihan cursed at the trees and pushed the branches back to reveal his house, or what's left of it.

"Say, I heard that there is some sort of festival going on tomorrow. Something relating to harvest? Why don't you go and have fun?"

"What the..." Reihan stuttered as he choked and suddenly clutched his chest. "Are you being affected by growing up again? Your mind thinks like a child."

"So it would seem to be the case. Are you going? You might get some nice experiences from that too."

Reihan stood straight and placed one hand on the ruined structure, admiring its remains.

"Yeah. Might as well live my current life to the fullest." he mumbled. "But, I'm going to sleep for now."

The only witness to his words was the silhouette who seemed to manage a smile, the trees around the glade, and the wind that blew across the moonless night.

* * *

><p>A normal weekend for Eichi usually consisted of three main components: insomnia-ridden nights, hours of work and preparation for class, and cooking. Seeing as this wasn't a normal weekend, she decided to throw caution to the wind and try something new. That 'something' could be described as getting fresh air and going to the harvest festival.<p>

_"...and maybe they'll have sweet potatoes...or maybe some fresh cabbage...or maybe even pomegranates!"_ she eagerly thought to herself as she locked the door to her house. _"I haven't had a pomegranate in a while, so I hope they have some!"_

The clouds had partially hidden the sun, allowing a bright and cheerful day that is not too hot for anyone's likings. It was a weather fitting for a festival that commemorate the harvests for the year to whoever or whatever the villagers wished to thank for the harvests.

Despite how much fun she thought the festival would be, she didn't leave anything to chance. Locking the doors, although it proved to be ineffective yesterday, was simply one of the precautions that she had to take. Eichi also had to bring her cane along with her today, just to be safe. Even if she didn't expect anything to be tripping her anytime soon, you never can tell how large crowds and little children will behave under stress or hyped up by adrenaline and endorphins.

Tapping along the stone streets, she made her way into the village and stared in awe at the decorations. If anyone claimed that they knew the village by heart, they would most likely have gotten lost in its current state. Reddish-brown leaves were spread out around the village grounds as trees shed their dead leaves during this time of the year, but the villagers had improvised on it. They pushed them off to the sides to make a pathway throughout the village, with stands lining the border between the street and the massive piles of leaves. Selling different kinds of fruits and vegetables from the harvest, wonderful aromas filled the air and attracted the masses. Everyone was bustling around and even the entrance seems to have a lively atmosphere that amplified the notion of a festival.

"This ought to be fun." she said out loud to nobody in particular. "Well then, where should I start?"

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><p>In the past, the first thing that would happen when the word 'festival' was mentioned would involve Reihan immediately repulsing and proceeding to ignore anything relating to it. However, this time…<p>

"I've seen wars but this is actually comparable to the chaos." he sighed as he stood at the entrance to the newly refurbished village. "That's why I hate festivals so much: people tend to get rowdy all of a sudden."

"Come on, you'll enjoy it!" she remarked with obvious traces of enthusiasm. "You never did partake in any of them in the past. That makes me wonder...are you afraid of them? Do they scare you?"

Reihan shook his head in response and sighed again. After a brief moment of silence, he walked into the village, turned around at the next bend and was immediately faced with a large crowd seemingly bend on returning a stand back to its original state: one without anything on it.

"Oh, now that's new to me." Reihan mumbled after smacking his forehead. "Stay quiet for today, can you?"

"Well, yes sir, boss. I'll stay quiet until something piques my interest again. Anyway, let's check out the stands!"

If anyone could be awed at the vocabulary used to insult or condemn people, they would stare at Reihan now and wonder where he learned all those words.

* * *

><p>Starting out down the main road, she looked off to the side and noticed, much to her surprise, an empty stand. Well, 'unattended' would probably be a better word to describe it. Numerous young children and adults were taking the opportunity to grab as many heads of cabbage as they could carry from the stand and, whether out of poverty or greed, deciding not pay for it.<p>

"Hey! Hey!" Eichi cried as she approached the abandoned stand. "What do you all think that you're doing? I can't have you vandalizing some poor farmer's stand, can I?"

The mob of people was decisively split between two actions. Most of the vandals ran away at first glance, carrying their stolen goods in tow. The three men who remained, however, had other ideas. All of them were menacingly large, much taller and bulkier than Eichi could ever hope to become in her lifetime.

"Who do you think you are?" one man answered; he was dressed in a pair of rough brown slacks and a black shirt. "It's free stuff! Why not grab it while it's here for the grabbing?"

"That would be immoral." Eichi lectured. "Not to mention that it's illegal."

"Just back off, missy." another man threatened; he wore a pair of brown shorts and was showing off his abs for the world to see. "Just ignore what you've seen and get on with your life."

A slight motion of his left hand revealed a small glint. Any person versed in the art of street warfare would recognize this as a warning.

"Yeah!" chimed in the first man. "We don't want to have to hurt the cripple."

While it's technically incorrect to say that Eichi is a cripple, the cane is proof enough. Add her odd gait into the mix, and you get a very simple diagnosis.

"I'd rather you not call me that..." she replied, tapping the cane rhythmically against the stone street. "But I know my bounds. Your empty threats don't frighten me, so please back off and then maybe we can have a civilized conversation later."

"Fat chance, cripple." the bare-chested man replied as he revealed the source of the earlier glint: a small knife. "It's funny, though; it's as if you wore a red vest to hide the wounds you'll be getting..."

* * *

><p>"Festivals sure are fun, aren't they?"<p>

Reihan sighed and moved away from a stand that sells fruits. Actually, most, if not all, of the stands here sells fruits and vegetables since it is the period of harvesting.

"I feel like dying here…" Reihan noted with a sour tone. "Maybe I should walk around with my eyes closed."

Reihan sighed again and closed his eyes. After a while, he opened them and mumbled, "Bad idea. I don't want to knock into anybody and cause a chain reaction."

"Look Rei, some boards to play with!" chirped his silhouette companion.

His attention was directed towards a few wooden boards leaning up against a wall. These boards, judging from their appearance, seemed to be materials for making stands. Apparently, however, they didn't make the cut; the boards had unwanted indents and were broken in several places.

"Stop calling me that! Seriously, those are not snowboards; they do not have wheels either, so they are not skateboards. But…" He said as he picked up a board, knocking it a few times with his fists. "These would be perfect for throwing. All I need are targets."

"And we have a commotion over there." noted the feminine voice. "Seems like the crowd is way too eager to get away from that stand. I wonder what made them run like that. Are they on fire, maybe?"

"Words have power, dummy. Stop making strange comments in case they become reality." Reihan sighed as he stood to the side so that the majority of the crowd could run past him to destination unknown to him. When the last line of people ran past, the silhouette jumped onto Reihan's shoulder, making him cringe.

"Look there!" she said as she pointed at the red-vested individual in the crowd. "Isn't that the girl who teaches you when you're 'playing student'?"

"Listen up. I find myself very intrigued by your reactions. Since when did you start acting like a child when you are actually almost four times as old as I am? Oh wait, that was when we arrived in the village." Reihan mocked as he turned to watch the event. "Oh, sensei's over there."

"Give me one reason why I should leave you alone and not murder you for making that comment." the silhouette threatened as she suddenly produced a knife out of nowhere.

"You know, if people glance this way, they would freak out at a floating knife pointing at a man, or boy. And again, do I have to repeat the same reason I said long ago?" Reihan replied, picking up two of the wooden boards off of the ground.

"Fine." she conceded, making the knife disappear in the process. "What are you going to do with those boards?"

"Well, I did indirectly injure her legs. If it comes to a race, even I could outrun her just by hopping on a leg. As such, at least I could do something; my conscious is pestering me to apologize, you see?" Reihan replied, pointing at the four individuals. "Why don't you go around the village and enjoy the festival? I bet I would not be much fun."

"Hmph, you're right for once. I'll take your offer then. See you later." the silhouette commented before suddenly vanishing.

"Seriously, I wonder how she manages to keep a low profile in a crowd." Reihan sighed as he stabbed the boards into the ground, making sure that they were straight. He turned and stared at the four individual, obviously not on good terms, and readied himself.

_"Here's a repayment for injuring your legs, sensei."_

He spun around and kicked one of the boards so hard that it snapped in the middle. The bottom half of the board stay rooted in the ground due to some basic principles of physics. The top part of the board, however, was sent flying across the air and made impact with the ground in between the argument.

"Woah! Shit!" the knife-wielding man cried as he almost bounced right off of the ground. All three of the men turned in the direction of the object thrown at them, hoping to catch a glimpse of their aggressor.

"It's that punk over there!" said the only man who had remained silent so far; he was wearing a pair of leather pants and a black t-shirt. "Sorry cripple-san, you're just going to have to wait."

Most people would have been justifiably pissed off at this point. Eichi, being the generally calm-natured person that she is, would probably describe herself as being 'mildly vexed'. She didn't bother looking over to see the bystander; she thought that using the time that she gained would be better than temporarily sating her curiosity.

"Hey!" Eichi exclaimed at the men. "Don't lose focus! Your target is over here!"

With that said, she lifted her cane up to the sky and brought it down upon the blade-wielding thief. It struck bone: right between the left shoulder and the neck. An explosion of pain, as expected, coursed through the man's body as he yelped like a dog, dropping the knife in the process. He fell to the ground with a thud, which was quickly followed up by another quick strike to the head with the tip of the cane. A satisfyingly disturbing crunch rang throughout the air, which caused many of the bystanders to turn their heads at the skirmish.

"So I'm just a little old 'cripple' huh? Is that how this works?" she remarked with a noticeable chuckle. "Well I'm sorry you had to see that. But if you really think you have a chance in a fight with yours truly, go ahead and try me. I dare you."

The two remaining men didn't make any attempts to attack her, but did exactly the opposite: they backed away from her. This was a futile effort, however, since they were standing right in front of the farmer's stall. There was nowhere to go, and it could be assumed at this point that they either weren't armed or were pissing their pants in fright right now. The most logical conclusion would be the former, but Eichi would take either one at this point as long as it got the point across.

"If I ever see you vandalize another stand, threaten myself or a bystander, or commit any otherwise illegal acts ever again, I'll make sure that you get a one-way ticket to the Yama. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

Both men nodded simultaneously. If anything, they'd be back in a week to wreak more havoc among the townsfolk. Some things never change...

"Now drop everything you have and run as far that way as you can." Eichi commanded, pointing east: the direction away from her house. "Well what are you waiting for? Shoo!"

Both men did exactly as they were told, dropping everything and running as fast as their overly-bulked-up legs could carry them. It only took about ten seconds for them to disappear from her sight, at which point she squatted down to look at her victim.

"I'm sorry, but I'll be taking this from you." she noted as she picked the knife up off of the ground. "It's a shame, too. This all could have been avoided if you had listened to me the first time. It's always been that way, but I don't want to bore you.~"

With that, she finally turned her attention in the direction that the wood had been thrown only to notice that nobody was there. She must have just missed the certain person who specializes in vanishing immediately after an incident.

_"Well now, that's a shame. I'd like to thank whoever that was even if I didn't need it."_ she thought to herself. _"I sure hope nobody saw that..."_

Contrary to her wishes, she had drawn a lot of attention. The crowd featured a myriad of faces, all featuring some sort of shock: some of amazement, some of disdain, and some of repulsion.

"Eh...nothing to see here, guys." she noted with a blush of embarrassment. "Do any of you want to take this guy to the hospital...?"

* * *

><p>"Oh well, time to find Lan now. She should be…great, I have no idea where she went to." Reihan grumbled as he weaved through the recently gathered crowd. When he finally emerged from the mass, he noticed another one forming quite a distance away: just beside a stand which sold wooden weaved dolls.<p>

"I told you already that I am not stealing it. I just forget about the rules of paying in this era." remarked a familiar voice.

Reihan smacked his forehead with his hand while noticing that the crowd was starting to grow; the curiosity of the people here seemed very hard to satisfy. He made his way through the former mass, occasionally hitting people accidentally with the board he was carrying, and when he did reach the center of the attention, he saw a grownup against a single child. The child was dressed in a simple white dress that flowed down to her knees just like her brown hair, which had bangs extending down the side of her face all the way to her neck. This made reading facial expressions somewhat difficult unless you were directly in front of her.

"_I thought I ask her to keep a low profile! Why the heck is she visible to others?_" Reihan thought to himself as he quickly moved forward. He heard a woman, obviously the stand owner, said as she tapped her foot in annoyance.

"So how could you possibly forget about paying?" she asked in a blatantly annoyed voice. "Around here, we call that stealing. Look girl, where are your parents? I want to speak with them."

She gave a forceful 'hmph!' and turned her head away, promptly ignoring her as Reihan, who had made his way past the wall of onlookers, tapped the stand owner with his hand.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Who are you?" the stand owner replied as she turned around and stared at Reihan from head to toe.

Before he could answer the woman, the girl jumped over, hugged Reihan in an innocent way only young children can do so perfectly, and emphatically cried "Daddy!"

Her words took everyone in the vicinity, including Reihan, by surprise. Gasps were heard in every direction as the crowd started to mumble among themselves. The stand owner stared at him for quite with a dumbfounded look on her face before before regaining her composure.

"So you are her father?" she asked, sounding more surprised than annoyed. Reihan, in return, looked up from the girl currently clinging to his leg and faced the shopkeeper.

"So..." he said, ignoring her question. "What did she do?"

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><p>Eichi never liked the police. Most of the time, they exaggerated everything to the point of absurdity. This, combined with past experiences with the law, made her extremely distrusting towards anyone who tried to uphold the law by claiming some sort of 'authority' and browbeating her with useless questions. I guess you could call her a hypocrite, but that might be a stretch.<p>

The police official in front of her was clothed in a clean, orderly, and moderately tight uniform: navy blue slacks and a jacket of the same color. She carried a small bludgeoning weapon (which had no name ascribed to it) and wore a golden badge on her jacket.

"For the final time, it was self-defense." Eichi stated, crossing her arms while staring rather angrily at the officer in front of her. "He flashed a knife at me and threatened a bystander. What was I supposed to do?"

"You should have contacted us and let us handle the situation." the officer responded in an oddly deep feminine voice. She stood at about the same height as Eichi, making eye contact only when absolutely necessary. Her brown hair was cut short: probably because short hair wouldn't get in her way if she was running or assuming some evasive maneuver.

"Apparently, you didn't notice this." she pointed out as she showed them her cane. "I couldn't have run away. They would have caught me easily."

The officer shook her head as if she was dismissing the fact as being circumstantial. In other words, she didn't believe her.

"That's not good enough." the same woman responded. "I'm going to have to take you down to HQ for interrogation, alright?"

"No, that's not alright." Eichi stated in response. "If you don't have any proof of my actions, you can't arrest me. You guys _should_ have learned that in basic training, am I right?"

The policewoman didn't respond. She was too busy thinking of a way to refute or subvert the teacher's previous statement.

"Well if you're finished assailing me with pointless questions, I'd like to get on with the festival." Eichi remarked with a surreptitious smile. "I honestly don't hope to see you again on these terms, but you're always welcome for tea at my house. Have fun!~"

With that, the teacher walked off down the street, not even turning around to see if the officer was pursuing her. The numerous stands off to the side, which had been watching the ongoing incident, stared at her with contempt. It didnt' matter, though. In the end, the farmer came back with most of his goods still intact. Eichi had done a good deed, and she was proud.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

23 June, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: I felt weird for not having anything to say but at least this is making progress. ...That should be all from me, my partner would take it from here; leave a review whether you like it or hate it to the core. Personal reasons, I don't really care that much; it's good to have a little secret.<strong>

**Kerreb17's Notes: A secret? Should I be scared...?**

**Here was that hiatus of (most likely) unnecessary proportions. This is the type delay that we were talking about in the first chapter, so at least you all know about it now.**

**Join us next time, alright? Hope you enjoyed the story and don't forget to comment!**


	7. Three Makes a Crowd

**Authors' Notes: Part 2 of the Festival is covered in this chapter. Here, we introduce another OC (Oh joy!), but you've already seen her already. Regardless, enjoy!**

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><p><em>"That's not good enough." the same woman responded. "I'm going to have to take you down to HQ for interrogation, alright?"<em>

_"No, that's not alright." Eichi stated in response. "If you don't have any proof of my actions, you can't arrest me. You guys should have learned that in basic training, am I right?"_

_The policewoman didn't respond. She was too busy thinking of a way to refute or subvert the teacher's previous statement._

_"Well if you're finished assailing me with pointless questions, I'd like to get on with the festival." Eichi remarked with a surreptitious smile. "I honestly don't hope to see you again on these terms, but you're always welcome for tea at my house. Have fun!~"_

_With that, the teacher walked off down the street, not even turning around to see if the officer was pursuing her. The numerous stands off to the side, which had been watching the ongoing incident, stared at her with contempt. It didnt' matter, though. In the end, the farmer came back with most of his goods still intact. Eichi had done a good deed, and she was proud._

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><p>After a bit of questioning, Eichi found out that a stand was, in fact, selling sweet potatoes. The problem was, however, that it was all the way on the other side of the village. Sure it was a hassle, but luxurious foodstuffs take time and dedication to make; it would only make sense that she had to navigate all the way through the village to get to it.<p>

Not only that, but she wanted to find Reihan. She hoped that he, a person that she thought was a rather anti-social and quirky kid, would come and have some fun. It looked like he needed it, at least from what she had seen.

_"I might have gone a bit overboard back there. Attracting the police is something that definitely shouldn't have happened."_ she thought to herself as she wandered down a smaller side street. _"Oh well, what's done is done. I just have to be extra careful so that they can't come up with another reason to chase me down."_

It wasn't long, however, before she ran into another predicament. A crowd of persons had amassed in the center of the street, blocking her path. They seemed especially interested in some sort of event, but everything was dead silent: not a typical result of a mob or a riot. No, it had to be something else.

_"Well, I guess today's my lucky day."_ she noted with a sigh._ "Lovely!~"_

She pushed against the various members of the mass, tapped against them with her cane, and for the most part tried to squirm through. It was working at first; the people would step aside, give some sort of expression of regret, and then reform around her. It was a pain, but she was making progress.

_"I guess this is why I never come to these things. First off, there are always huge crowds and tons of commotions. Second, I always end up getting these pathetic looks from people just because I carry this cane around. Third..."_ she thought to herself with a sigh. _"...I should just stop complaining. It isn't THAT bad. Heck, I've had some fun already. Now if only I could make it through this mob in one piece..."_

Eichi, after a couple more seconds of squirming, finally broke through the mass. She didn't end up outside on the other side, however. As was her tendency to somehow draw incidents towards herself, she had pushed herself into the center of the debacle. Of course, she immediately noticed Reihan. She wasn't surprised.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, not noticing the shopkeeper or the girl clinging to his leg. "Where were you? I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"And who's this? Is she related to you?" The shopkeeper asked almost immediately after Eichi appeared.

Reihan turned around and replied Eichi with an urgent tone, "Can you please excuse me for a moment? I am in a bind right now and it would be best if you would just, putting it bluntly, go away."

"That's kind of rude, don't you think?" Eichi noted with a slightly surprised look. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you think that you can do everything yourself."

"Actually, that is what I think I am capable of doing." Reihan casually replied.

When she then saw the young girl hugging Reihan's leg ferociously, Eichi couldn't help but let out a stifled laugh.

"Now, I do not know what is happening right now but I advise that you have your little lovers' quarrel somewhere else. I am still waiting for an explanation on what your little girl had done." the shopkeeper remarked as she tapped her foot on the ground impatiently.

Upon hearing her words, Reihan smacked his head with his hand. Eichi simply stared at the shopkeeper with a look that read 'you can't be serious'.

"This time, I'm the one who doesn't understand anything." Reihan replied. "I have already explained that she does not socialize much and you do not seem to believe me when I say that I have nothing on me that looks or functions like currency."

"In other words, you're saying that she's a little thief, right?" the shopkeeper said. The conversation was drifting towards an unwanted topic and the crowd seems to be muttering among themselves.

"Prove it." Eichi replied sharply as she walked up to Reihan's side. "I can't see any reason why she would want to steal from this stand, and I don't appreciate you accusing innocent people of burglary."

Looking down at the child and squatting down to the best of her ability, Eichi grabbed the child on the shoulder and ruffled it slightly.

"You wouldn't dare steal anything from here, would you?" Eichi spoke in a soft tone. "It's all just a big misunderstanding, that's all."

After a small shriek, the girl struggled out of Eichi's grip and jumped at Reihan almost immediately after, latching onto him again. Tugging his hakama, the girl whispered something to Reihan and he sighed before turning to the shopkeeper. Eichi, feeling slightly disappointed in herself, stood straight again only to find herself staring at the young girl.

"Let me put it this way. I believe that she did not intend to steal the doll but was fascinated by it so much that she forgot about putting it back when she decided to come and look for me. However, you saw her as if she was about to walk away with the doll 'unpaid'. Does that make sense?"

"That sounds very probable." Eichi noted, tapping her cane on the ground in a slow rhythmic pattern. "If it makes you feel any better, I can vouch for this man's honesty."

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and took the time to look at Reihan and the girl, turned and looked at Eichi before turning back and taking a deep breath.

"This is a festival, isn't it? It would not bode well for both parties to be in a begrudging mood at the end of the day." she noted. "Alright, I'll accept your explanation. In return, however, I want her to apologize."

"Then that's what she'll do." Reihan replied and gently nudged the child forward. She looked at Reihan and he nodded once before she went over to the shopkeeper.

"I-I'm sorry for the troubles I've caused." she muttered softly.

Something seemed...off about the apology, though. The normal cheeriness of the child's tone had disappeared and was replaced with an almost unintelligible sulkiness.

"_And there she goes to apologize with another mood swing...or is it a personality switch?_" Reihan thought to himself as he carried the girl up onto his shoulder.

"Well then, I'm sorry for this incident too." he noted out loud. "Just go back to enjoying yourselves, alright?"

The crowd muttered among themselves again but slowly dispersed back into an average scene of a village during a festival. The shopkeeper sighed and went back to her stall, peddling her goods as per normal.

"Can we go home?" The girl asked when everything was back to as normal as it can be.

"Wait a while." he replied as he shook his head. "I have a few things to settle."

Turning around, he faced Eichi with a half surprised and half curious look.

"Are you having a fun time here at the festival too, sensei?" he asked before putting on a more serious tone. "More importantly, why do I get the feeling that you were very interested in my business? Forgive me if I sound rude, but that's just what I've been noticing."

"Oh? It's not a rude question, so don't worry about it." she responded with a smile. "I wouldn't call my experience 'fun', but it's definitely been interesting. I'm glad I came, at least."

She paused for a second to look once again at the child wrapped around his leg. Eichi couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for scaring her; children usually don't react that way towards her.

"Concerning your business, I didn't have much choice in this time. I accidentally stumbled upon this one and I guess I just couldn't help myself." she noted. "But that's beside the point, Reihan. Why don't you introduce me to your friend? She looks adorable!~"

The girl wrapped her arms around Reihan's leg even harder and even move to hide half of her face from Eichi.

"She's implying that you gave her a sudden chill down her spine when you said that." Reihan noted with a sigh. "She isn't used to people calling her cute and the ones that do…let's just say that they affected her negatively. But I doubt you would do anything to her; you're one of those honest people who most likely doesn't do anything to get themselves into trouble."

Eichi wore a smile on her face that practically screamed 'if only you knew'.

Reihan turned around and, from among the crowd, spotted something which apparently surprised and interested him.

"Since you're here though, let her do the introduction herself; I've some things to fulfil on my to-do list for today."

Bending down, he patted the girl on her head and muttered something to her. After a while, the girl relinquished her grip on him and slowly moved towards Eichi.

"Well, have a nice little chat sensei; I'll come for her later." he said, smiling. With a wave, he walked away into the crowd and disappeared from sight.

Eichi stared at the young girl for a while, thinking to herself about how she should appeal to the child. Her earlier encounter told her not to be as forward, so she sat back for a bit before speaking her mind.

"So...I guess a formal greeting is in order." she said, attempting to hide her nervousness. "I'm Inryoku Eichi and I am a teacher at the academy here; Reihan happens to be one of my students, actually. I guess I know now that he can trust me enough to take care of a - you are a friend, aren't you? - but I just have to ask: who are you?"

"My name is Lan. Reihan is my…umm…can I not answer that?" Lan fidgeted and looked down on her sandals. Her hands moved to grip her long brown hair instead and moved it to screen a part of her face. In short, a scene of a girl trying to shrink away from other people.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Lan. A friend of Reihan is a friend of mine." she replied optimistically. "It's good to know that Reihan isn't just talking to himself all the time; that would make me very uncomfortable."

Eichi pulled out a small pack of money and counted it: more than enough money to get her through the day.

"Well, I have an idea." Eichi continued, stuffing the money back into her pocket. "How about I go buy you something nice to eat? It's nearing noon and I think I'd like to get something as well."

After a quick and vigorous nodding of head, Lan hesitated for a moment before moving closer to Eichi and wrapped herself around her arm.

"Sounds like a plan, huh?" Eichi said. "Well, we'll just start walking and you tell me when you see something good, alright?"

Lan nodded with a slight smile on her face as she set out in search of a suitable lunch...

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><p>Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Reihan weaved through the crowd with ease and soon found himself at the entrance to the village. Turning his head from side to side, he surveyed the two individuals that he had seen a few moments ago. Stooping down, he picked up a pebble and, showcasing professionalism, threw it up into the air only to catch it on its way back to Earth without paying much attention to it.<p>

"_Let's see. From what I have observed lately, it seems as if most of the inhabitants in this place lean towards the feminine side. Guess it won't hurt to be misunderstood for once._" Reihan thought to himself as he pulled back his arm, narrowed his eyes and flung the pebble as far as he could.

...or as accurate as he could. The small bullet made its way through the air with only a whistling sound to accompany its movement. A few seconds later, the person Reihan was aiming for turned around, spotted him and was about to wave her hand when she suddenly moved to one side; the pebble apparently had been spotted despite its small size and near-silent movement and had been dodged rather lithely.

"_Okay…better go up and say hi._" Reihan moved his hands into the pocket, removed a card and stared at it for a while.

"Fortune telling never hits the mark, huh? Maybe I should reconsider the effect this place has on certain things." He flipped the card around and leaned against the wall of a nearby building. Without looking at the arrivals of the two individuals, he continued flipping the card until one of the two sighed.

"Are you getting back at me for accidently hitting you last time?" a familiar witch asked.

"Ermm, Marisa? Do you know him?" a not-so-familiar voice said.

Reihan looked up to see a blonde-haired girl wearing a light blue dress held together by lacy pink ribbons. Her scarlet headband held her hair neatly in place as she looked at him with her green eyes, attempting to canvass the newcomer's face for any signs of hostility.

"If you mean we know each other by name, then no." he replied, shaking his head. "But if you mean simply the fact that we've met each other, then you'd be correct. We've had both a pleasant and a hostile encounter, if I remember correctly."

"Still being hostile as ever, da ze." Marisa replied. "Alice, remember a few days back when I said that there is someone who is weird and seems to be able to help you? Well, here he is."

Marisa pointed the tip of her broom at Reihan, who moved sideways to avoid being hit by it.

"Do you always had that broom with you?" he asked in response. "What's it for anyway?"

"It completes the look!" she exclaimed. The other girl, Alice Margatroid, simply sighed.

"Don't mind her." Alice said. "What's your name?"

"Reihan." he replied simply with a shrug. "How am I of help to someone whom I had met only a few seconds ago?"

"I believe that I had seen you playing around with dolls; why don't you share with Alice your way of manipulating them?" Marisa remarked as she reached behind Alice and pulled out a doll from somewhere. "And Alice, think of this as the atonement for last time."

Reihan merely placed the card he was holding back into his pocket, turned around and walked away without much of a fuss. Alice was staring at Marisa as though the kleptomaniac witch had just announced that she had quit stealing things from others.

"Playing with dolls; that's a thing you learn to pick up when you spend years alone in a desert. This is puppetry, not 'playing with dolls'." Reihan said with a wave of his hand as he walked away; after a while, though, he stopped and turned around, facing the blonde pair once again. "Why do you need me to share how I control puppets? Isn't it standard?"

"Looks like you need an explanation." Marisa noted as she placed the broom on her shoulder. "Why don't we take a look around the village while Alice explains everything to you? Come on, it'll be fun!"

Alice merely gave a nod before following the active witch. Reihan shook his head and clutched it with both his hands.

"_I swear I'll die within the year if conversations like this keep popping up..._"

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><p>Lan weaved through the crowd easily as something piqued her interest. She darted through the rows of people like a small minnow, which was more than enough trouble for the stumbling teacher behind her.<p>

"Hey! Slow down!" Eichi yelled. "Don't get lost!"

_"Seriously, I can't lose this kid! It's bad enough that she's small and full of energy, but my lameness doesn't help."_ she hurriedly thought to herself. _"Knowing my luck, she'll be gone by the time I can even..."_

"Inryoku-san! Over here!" Lan cried, holding on to an apple. Although in the middle of the crowd, the comment was just barely at an audible level.

"Hm? Did you find something?" Eichi asked as relief rushed back into her mind. "Sure, I'll buy that for you. Where did you find it?"

"Over here." Lan pointed at a stand beside her selling all sorts of fruits; one could say that it is one of the best stocked stands around since the different variety of fruits and vegetables sold appealed to people. Not only that, but it also sold other food and non-edible items which allowed the stand owner to earn quite a portion of profits.

Eichi walked up to the stand, which for an unidentifiable reason was devoid of customers, and looked at the selection. There didn't seem to be too much that she wanted, but she was getting hungry. It only made sense to eat just to stop that nagging feeling in her gut.

"Excuse me, I'm going to buy that one apple that the girl over there is holding right now." Eichi said, setting one of her yen notes on the stand. "Could you throw in a peach as well?"

"No problem, miss." the stall owner answered, handing her the requested fruit along with a small amount of change. "Anythin' else I can getcha?"

"I'm fine, but thank you." she replied. "Have a nice day."

Eichi turned away and walked back to Lan, who was currently staring at the apple with an excited look. The teacher couldn't help but crack a small smile.

"You know, I never really liked apples." Eichi began, fiddling around with the peach in her hand. "I'm curious, though, as to why you picked an apple instead of one of the numerous other fruits there."

"I've liked apples since I was born; it was the first food that I ever ate in my life!" a very cheerful Lan replied with her mouth positioned to bite the red flesh of the apple.

"You know, everyone who has ever existed has had an imperturbable preference for some food, item, or concept." Eichi replied. "They never lose interest in it no matter how much they eat, use, or think about it. You eating that apple made me think about that, I guess."

"Just like the day and night cycle then; or the waxing and waning lunar cycle." Lan replied perfectly somehow while chewing the apple. "Still, this apple is the result of someone's hard work. It is only fair that I enjoy the product of the harvest."

"Oh, that reminds me. Are you staying to give thanks for the harvest at nightfall?" Eichi asked, taking a small bite out of her own fruit. "Who knows, the various harvest gods might show up again this year. That would be a treat to see, wouldn't it?"

"Harvest…gods? Is there such thing as a god here?" Lan tilted her head to one side and almost immediately turned around and muttered so softly that one had to be very near her to hear.

_"Wait a second. Why doesn't she know that gods exist?"_ Eichi mused with a blatantly unattractive look on her face. _"That doesn't make any sense..."_

"If there is such thing as a god, maybe they care more about themselves then about people." Lan continued. "They always ignored my pleas in the past even though I was told not to believe in them…"

"Hold on, you were told NOT to believe in them? I can't help but find that odd." Eichi replied. "Everyone knows that gods exist in Gensokyo. You can even go see them in their shrines if you wish. Pardon me for finding it hard to believe that you've been told that gods don't exist."

"They don't for me and Reihan. Well, we're not from he-ahh!" Lan suddenly covered her mouth halfway through her sentence and dropped the half-eaten apple onto the ground; after a while, she removed her hands slightly from her mouth. "I bit my tongue..."

"You did? That's not good; it must have hurt." Eichi replied, feigning surprise. "And you dropped your apple too! I'll go buy you another one."

A second trip to the stand procured a second apple, which she promptly gave to Lan.

"You know, you gave me an interesting thought." Eichi continued, munching on her peach. "I know you said that you didn't want to talk about it earlier, but I'm just curious. How are you and Reihan related? You don't look young enough to be his daughter, nor do you look old enough to be his wife. Could you be siblings, perhaps?"

"Looks can be deceiving." Lan replied while holding on to the newly bought apple with one hand while the other was caressing her cheek. "People never believe me when I say that Reihan is not my brother."

She gingerly bit the apple and chew it slowly to avoid biting her tongue again.

"And I cannot answer your question, Inryoku-san." she continued. "If Reihan did not want to let you know yet, then I am obliged not to do so. Everyone has secrets that they want to keep. Even you, I believe."

Eichi responded with a stiff sigh. Kids can be quite observant, can't they?

"As I once told your friend, the best place to hide things is in plain sight." the teacher added, keeping a sort of stern rhythm in her voice. "But I really need to stop being so nosy. It's one of my less desirable character traits."

Again, Eichi sighed with a patient fervor. Taking one more bite out of her peach, she looked back at Lan with a blatantly fake smile.

"I have to admit, though, you're still pretty cute." she remarked. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, alright?"

"You sounded just like our mother." Lan snickered and pointed to the crowd. "Shall we continue to tour the village until night time, Inryoku-san?"

"You know, that sounds wonderful." Eichi replied softly, blushing somewhat. "I'll take you up on that offer. Would you like to lead the way?"

Without offering a response Lan gaily dashed off down the street. Eichi, taking a breath of the musty air, composed herself before pursuing the excited child. Something about Lan made a noticeable impression on her, but she couldn't quite figure out what. She could only manage to think of one simple thing:

_"You know, I've always wanted to be a mother..."_

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten, Lan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

4 July, 2011

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><p><strong>KuriaKai's Notes: You know, if any of you reading this thinks that it is…well, boring, it is the way life enact itself, right? Except for some variations here and there. Of course, this would not be always that happy…oops, hand it over to my partner now. But before that, if you guys and girls have anything to say about this, like or hate, feel free to let us know about it!<strong>

**Kerreb17's Notes: Happy 4th of July everyone! The patriotism within each of our hearts burns strong today, carrying with it a new light into the future. Either that or the rest of my notes; take your pick.**

**I do agree with KuriaKai. Life is a generally slow-paced interaction between peoples where we learn more about ourselves and the world around us. Some people like to read stories like these, I guess. Others, well, want more action. I can't guarantee anything at this point, but I think that you won't be disappointed!~**

**Anyways, we hope that you enjoyed this chapter and that you will continue reading! Leave a review while you're at it! Cheers!**


	8. Out With a Bang

**Authors' Notes: This is the third and final part of the Festival. For reference, the current day in story is Saturday.**

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><p><em>Again, Eichi sighed with a patient fervor. Taking one more bite out of her peach, she looked back at Lan with a blatantly fake smile.<em>

_"I have to admit, though, you're still pretty cute." she remarked. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, alright?"_

_"You sounded just like our mother." Lan snickered and pointed to the crowd. "Shall we continue to tour the village until night time, Inryoku-san?"_

_"You know, that sounds wonderful." Eichi replied softly, blushing somewhat. "I'll take you up on that offer. Would you like to lead the way?"_

_Without offering a response Lan gaily dashed off down the street. Eichi, taking a breath of the musty air, composed herself before pursuing the excited child. Something about Lan made a noticeable impression on her, but she couldn't quite figure out what. She could only manage to think of one simple thing:_

_"You know, I've always wanted to be a mother..."_

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><p>While weaving through a crowd is not as easy as one might think it is, it is easy enough for a small child like Lan who avoids everyone with her tiny stature. "<em>Festivals are fun, aren't they? This just made me wonder why Rei seems to hate them that much…maybe I could ask him later. Still, where should I go next?<em>"

"Lan, where's sensei?" Reihan's voice rang out from the crowd and Lan immediately focused onto him: the only person she could locate almost immediately without much thought and vice versa. Lan was about to point behind her to indicate that Eichi was about to catch up when she noticed two other person behind Reihan, one of them already known to her in person but not in name.

"She looks a lot like you. Is she your sister?" Alice noted as she popped out from behind Reihan. Marisa did the same on the opposite side with a silly grin plastered on her face.

"Hm? We look alike?" Reihan asked, giving Alice a bored look. "She looks worlds apart from me; how DO you people see the resemblance?"

"Are you sure? I think that you-" Alice started but a familiar voice cut through the crowd halfway through her sentence.

"I told you to wait for me!" Eichi cried out over Alice's voice as she was 'quickly' approaching the group. "Please don't run away when I'm using the restroom, alright? It's rude and it makes me feel usel..."

She paused mid-sentence as she noticed Lan's group. Marisa's grin made her feel slightly awkward, since the witch was famous for taking sentences out of context. Alice, on the other hand, was not to be feared. In fact, Eichi respected the youkai magician for her dispassionate demeanor: a trait that they both shared in varying degrees.

"...uh, but that's beside the point." she continued, straightening herself up into a more presentable pose. "I'm glad to see that you found some friends to hang out with, Reihan. Marisa might not be the best role model..."

"Hey now, that's not-"

"True, but still not the best out here in this world." Reihan interrupted Marisa's retort and silently grinned to himself, though Alice and Lan caught the meaning of it. "On the other hand, even though we had just met and my impression of you is, well, not that very well established."

"...but Alice is someone you can look up to." Eichi noted, eyeing the magician's face for any signs of gratitude; Reihan merely gave a short nod while Lan stared at Alice with a look that is clearly seen as admiration. "By the way, Lan and I had a lot of fun over the past few hours! I assume that you want her back now, am I right?"

"Lan, do you want to return to me now?" Reihan asked casually.

"No; I want to play more with Inryoku-san!" she replied almost immediately with a wide grin on her face. "You can take a break though; it looks like your illness is going to act up soon."

_"Illness...?"_ Eichi thought to herself. _"But I told myself that I wouldn't be nosy, so I'm not going to ask about it. It's better that way."_

"Ermm, I think we are intruding more than we ought to. Marisa and I will take our leave now." Alice said with an air of importance to which Marisa neither complained or retorted; she merely nodded and followed the magician further into the village.

"What did I forget to ask - oh - damn, why did they leave after leaving me with partially answered questions?" Reihan smacked his head with his hand before promptly turning around. "Well, are you going to continue the touring of the festival with Lan? She seems especially attached to you now, more than anyone we had met before."

Before Eichi could reply, Lan scooted back to Reihan and, seemingly with experience, climbed onto Reihan's shoulder without any aid.

"You are coming with us too whether like it or not, Rei. Either that or I'll bug you at night with those incidents again."

"Fine; I'll do it only to prevent you from keeping me awake." Reihan replied and walked right up beside Eichi. "Well, sensei, where shall we go first or should we just wander aimlessly around until it is time for the festival to end? It's your call now."

"What do you mean? Sunset is almost upon us; we don't have time to wander. Don't you remember what hap..." Eichi noted before pausing, recalling that the duo were 'outsiders' as Lan had inadvertently hinted earlier. "...oh, that's right. Sorry for being so rude. I'll just go ahead and explain it, then."

Eichi carefully dropped the cane on the ground, freeing both of her hands. Storytelling was one of her favorite hobbies, and she especially loved to act out the stories. Unfortunately for her, she rarely had an audience: most of the time it was a group of errant children playing in the streets.

"You see, the purpose of the harvest festival is to commemorate the gods and goddesses that allow us to reap wonderful bounties from the earth." she began, mapping out appropriate actions as she went. "These gods thrive on faith and reverence, which is something that this festival provides for them. Once night falls, everyone gathers in the main street for a ceremony of sorts. The farmers offer the best of their crops to the gods while the rest of us shout songs of praise and good tidings. It makes the gods overwhelmingly joyful to see us rejoicing over their gifts, and so they bless us for the next coming year. The cycle, hopefully, will continue on and on like that until the end of eternity. Lately, however, the gods - or I should say goddesses - have been appearing at the ceremonies to observe our praise more directly. It's the only time that you can meet them unless you're willing to scale a mountain, which most people aren't. Still, this is a wonderful time filled with fun, frolic, and the occasional injury. Nobody minds very much, though; it's all in good fun."

Finished with her tale, Eichi picked up her cane from the ground and gave a contented grin to both Reihan and Lan. Reihan gave no noticeable response, but Lan supported her head with her hands, which was in turn supported by Reihan's shoulder, giving a look that clearly showed she was daydreaming. A tale so foreign to her didn't hesitate to grab her interest, and she as a result was imagining herself within her own fantasies.

"At least that's what the official story is; I'm not sure if this festival serves that exact same purpose every year." she added hurriedly before catching her breath. "Honestly, though, I'm surprised that I remembered all that. I usually don't care much about these sorts of things, but I guess this is one of the few events that I actually respect as a holiday. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"I agreed with you Inryoku-san, festivals sure are interesting enough." Lan noted upon snapping back into reality.

Reihan, however, persisted with the blank stare. Eichi canvassed his face to see any signs of contentment or happiness, but she didn't find any.

"Rei? Are you alright?" Lan continued, realizing that the boy had been silent for a while now; he merely gave a nod and shook his head three times. "Try not to tire yourself out before this ends."

"I know." Reihan finally spoke, albeit in a voice that differed from his usual tone; it sounded just like a person who was either very sick or about to visit the netherworld. "Let's go. It seems like the villagers are gathering around there."

Lan suddenly dropped down to the ground, landed on her feet, and scooted over to Eichi while pulling on Reihan's hand.

"Let's go and see the goddesses!" she exclaimed, grabbing the teacher's hand almost too tightly.

"Well it's not too far from here, so let's just take our time." Eichi responded, beginning a slow walk towards the village's main street. "Don't worry, you'll get to meet them. I'll make sure of that!~"

With that, the trio set out down the street for what would hopefully be a wonderful end to the festival...

* * *

><p>The main street was truly a sight to behold. Hanging from the walls of the surrounding buildings, lights covered in a circular paper shell, lit up the normally dark village with a dazzling orange glow. The stars, despite the sheer amount of light, shone as brightly as usual; they must have been glad for the moon's disappearance the night before.<p>

A slight breeze rolled throughout the street, making the normally warm night a bit more palatable. Keeping with the theme of the season, a myriad of leaves, ranging from faded reds to brilliant yellows, drifted about above the village. It wasn't anything fancy, but simple-minded folk could be entertained for hours by simply staring at the 'autumn dance' as they called it.

In the middle of the street was a large mass of villagers gathered into a semi-circular formation. Focusing on a point currently invisible to the trio, they were surprising quiet. One could probably have heard the sound of a rustling leaf if they tried hard enough.

"Oh, I forgot to mention something." Eichi noted. "This is one of those special nights where people think it's OK to drink a boatload of booze. Once this ceremony is over, I'd suggest that you leave and don't loiter in the village until the next morning. Even then, people are really bitchy since they're so hung over. It's a sad condition."

"I don't really deem it as a physical condition ailment. I think…erm…Rei, what was that we learned last time?" Lan asked.

"It is more of a mental ailment? If I remember correctly, those 'drinks' affect your head more than your body." he replied. The last sentence had a tone of disgust that was not very well veiled.

"If only." Eichi remarked. "But look who's here! Lucky us!"

Four formidable figures stood in a line against the entrance to a popular pub; the circle of men seemed to be focused upon these individuals. The farthest to the right was a green-haired woman dressed in a blue and white outfit typical of a shrine maiden. She also wore an aquamarine frog pendant and a teal snake braid in her hair, probably giving reverence to her gods.

The next woman, dressed in a draping dark red skirt with a lighter red hem, was an oddity in herself. She not only wore a mirror on her chest, but she also wore a large braided rope on her back which seemed to focus around her purple hair.

Continuing down the line, a lady stood wearing a faded yellow blouse and a black dress, both of which were covered by a red apron with a wheat pattern etched along the bottom. A red hat with a bunch of grapes sat upon her blonde hair as she looked quickly at the large crowd that had accumulated.

The final woman was another blonde one, but she wore a red ribbon in her hair instead of a hat. Her one-piece dress, which gradually shifted in color from a dark red on the top to a bright yellow on the bottom, was unique in the fact that the hem was cut out in a pattern depicting maple leaves.

"Are those the goddesses? Seems…normal to me. Hey Rei, noticed anything weird about their auras?" Lan said as she looked at Reihan, who looked paler than ever. He merely nodded in response.

_"Auras? What could she possibly mean by that?"_ Eichi thought to herself. _"Must. Stop. Questioning. Self. I swear, these two are going to drive me crazy by the end of the day. Thank goodness I'm not a cat."_

"Inryoku-san, who are the figures floating above the crowd?" Lan asked as she shifted her gaze to Eichi.

"For starters, the two goddesses on the left are sisters." Eichi pointed out. "The one with the leaf cut-out dress is named Shizuha Aki; she's in charge of changing the color of leaves in autumn. The one wearing the red hat with grapes on it is named Minoriko Aki; she's the one specifically in charge of maintaining a good harvest, so I always make sure to thank her. Although they are both considered 'minor gods' when compared to the other two, they deserve an equal amount of respect."

"Okay…" Lan pondered as she nodded her head.

"The other two are members of the Moriya shrine, the place that I was talking about on top of the mountain." she continued, crossing her legs together as she stood in place. "The green-haired one, Sanae Kochiya, is a miko who supposedly has the divine ability to bring about miracles. It seems like a very nice power, though I've never actually seen it in use. It'd be interesting to have an ability like that, wouldn't you agree?"

"Not that much, actually." Reihan said, placing one hand over his mouth and coughing once. "And the one in the middle?"

"She is named Kanako Yasaka. Since she's the goddess of the Moriya shrine, she's the most powerful of them all. I have no idea what she can actually do, though..." the teacher added, slightly ashamed at her lack of information. "All I know is that she attends to the prayers of her followers and thus keeps them faithful. I'll really have to look into this, now that I think about it..."

"Names and status is good enough for information for the two of us." Lan said with a smile. Immediately afterwords, she pulled Reihan closer while whispering something into his ears.

"Well it still bugs me that I don't know that much about her. I'll look it up later." she replied, making a mental note. "Anyways, it looks like we're about to get started. I hope you like it!~"

With the sun finally setting in the west, the ceremony officially began. A sweet and melodious tune drifted though the air, created by a trio of men playing the violin, trumpet, and flute. The song reminded the villagers about the paradoxically serious yet casual setting of the festival. No singing accompanied the music, but that would come later on in the ceremony.

"When we all start singing, I'd be delighted if you both joined us." Eichi remarked happily, soaking up the ambiance. "Even if you've never heard the songs before, they aren't too hard to pick up on. Well, I guess it depends on whether they want to do more than one this time around - sometimes they only do one. Regardless, they'll be at the end, so you might have to wait a while."

"I'll try. I'm not really in the mood though." Reihan replied and hosted Lan up onto his shoulder.

"Songs? I love them." Lan chimed in. "Mostly flute-based music, though."

Slowly, the music faded in a euphonious and satisfying cadence. The crowd, with Eichi included, happily applauded the performance. The gods seemed to find it entertaining as well, each of them (excluding Kanako, who was as serious as could be) had a wide grin of contentment plastered on her face.

"Thank you very much for that performance" the mountain goddess said. "With that, we will begin accepting gifts. Who's first?"

A small stocky man approached, holding a large basket filled to the brim with ears of corn. He looked slightly frightened, but he was a veteran; he had participated in this event multiple times without reproach.

"Lady Yasaka, I present you with this gift of my finest corn." the farmer said, placing the basket in the center of the circle. "Please accept it and bless us with a bountiful harvest next year."

He walked back into the circle and another man appeared, this one carrying a basket filled with potatoes. This one was slimmer and had pronounced facial features. His clothing did not speak fondly of his wealth, even if he owned one of the largest farms in the area.

"Lady Yasaka, I present you with this gift of my finest potatoes." he spoke, reciting the same message as the first farmer. "Please accept it and bless us with a bountiful harvest next year."

And so the cycle continued for nearly an hour. A farmer would place his basket, which was the same type as everyone else's, in the center of the circle, recite the hopes for a plentiful harvest, and walk back into the crowd. It was all standard procedure; the gods preferred it that way.

After the final basket had been presented and all of the men had returned back to the crowd, a strong gust of wind picked up. In a flurry of orange-brown leaves, the gifts all disappeared into thin air. Numerous 'oohs' and 'aahs' echoed throughout the ring.

"Thank you very much for your selfless gifts." Kanako spoke loudly and full of poise. "All four of us can assure you that next year's harvest will be a great one."

The crowd erupted into cheers of happiness and glee. Eichi, as happy as she was, remained silent; this did not affect her that much. Not being native to the village, Reihan and Lan just remained silent and continued watching the scene.

"We hope that we are able to attend this festival next year." she continued. "So please, enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening. You know where to find us if you wish to talk."

With that, all four of the goddesses vanished. Minoriko and Aki both disappeared into a veil of autumn leaves, Sanae in a gust of somehow visible wind, and Kanako in a flash of light.

"Right, time to bail." Reihan said and turned to leave the scene. Lan placed her head onto his head and yawned loudly.

"Hold on a second." Eichi remarked, grabbing Reihan's free shoulder. "Even though you probably want to leave, this is the part where everyone bonds through song. It's really a fun experience."

As if on cue, an uplifting melody surged through the crowd; it was a classic song that almost every human villager knew by heart. A wave of excitement spread over most of the villagers as they eagerly prepared themselves. Eichi simply grinned widely, looking back Reihan and a sleepy Lan.

"You know, this is one of my favorites." she added, tapping her cane to the beat. "Well, you don't have to stay if you don't want to. It won't hurt my feelings."

"Rei? Can we listen to that?" Lan murmured as she gently closed her eyes.

"Guess I'm staying after all." Reihan replied, placing his hands on Lan's shoulders to secure her. "At least let me find somewhere to sit; carrying her is a little tiring for me right now."

After that, he shrugged off Eichi's hand and settled down at a vacant stand not far away, moving Lan from his shoulder to his knees. The dozing girl was curled up into a ball as she muttered something in her sleep. Reihan merely stared at the crowd in anticipation.

~I can see the shining star

As it approaches me

And I know that deep inside my heart

I wish for it to stay~

Closing his eyes, Reihan just sat still and listened to the song while Lan stirred in her sleep. Eichi eagerly sang along, although her voice wasn't the most pleasant thing to grace anyone's ears.

~I can see the shining star

As it passes over me

And I know that deep inside my heart

I wish for it to stay~

"_It reminded me of something…" _Reihan thought to himself. _"...Feelings?_"

~It twinkles bright and winks at me

As if it wants to say

"I'm sorry that I have to leave

But I'll come another day!"~

"_That was when I was born…right, Lan?_" he thought in tune with the music.

~I can see my shining star

As it flies away from me

And I know that deep inside my heart

I wish for it to stay~

The song finished, the crowd erupted into cheersand Reihan opened his up into the sky,both Reihan and Eichisaw the heavenly lights flickering brightly; it was as if they had listened to the hymn and were showing their gratitude.

"Well wasn't that fun?" Eichi remarked with a contented grin on her face. "It's a shame that it's over already, but I guess all good things must come to an end."

"Right. I think I'll stick around for a while more." Reihan said while patting Lan's head, which the girl continued to mutter something to herself in her sleep.

"Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and leave. There isn't much else to do after this. What a finale, though!" the teacher added, patting the small child on the head. "It was nice meeting you, Lan. And I guess I'll see you on Monday, Reihan. Have a nice weekend, you two."

With that, Eichi walked off towards the west and into the starry sky. Similarly, the crowd began to break apart. Many of the men moved into pubs down the way and the children lay fast asleep in their mothers' arms. After a while, only the sound of leaves brushing against the stone streets could be heard. If it weren't for the ornaments that still hung along the buildings, you could say that nothing had ever happened here.

"It's true when she said that there would be nothing else to do. I'm bored…" Reihan said to no one in particular as he stared at the night sky to alleviate his boredom.

"What time is it now?" Lan asked, stirring awake from her sleep.

"Night. We should get going now. you know I can't carry you when you're sleeping."

"Scared of me hitting you in my sleep?" she replied with a wry smile.

"Those punches hurt. Anyway, let's get going now. I'm feeling really queasy." Reihan said and stood up after Lan scrambled onto his shoulder again. Taking a last look at the village, he turned and left the village, heading for the Forest of Magic.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten, Lan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

1 August, 2011

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><p><strong>Kerreb17's Notes: Again, KuriaKai has nothing of import to note. I don't have much either, but I'd like to get some stuff off of my chest. <strong>**My school is coming into session shortly, so I'm not going to be able to post as much. 'Tis a shame, really.**

**I do like to write poetry, so I tried to throw some of it into this chapter. Was it appealing?**

**Anyways, we both thank you for reading this chapter. Don't forget to leave us a review and join us next time! Cheers!**


	9. Numbing of the Senses

**Authors' Notes: We apologize for the wait yet again. Due to circumstances out of our control, we have been unable to make any progress. Ah well, be what it may.**

* * *

><p><em>With that, Eichi walked off towards the west and into the starry sky. Similarly, the crowd began to break apart. Many of the men moved into pubs down the way and the children lay fast asleep in their mothers' arms. After a while, only the sound of leaves brushing against the stone streets could be heard. If it weren't for the ornaments that still hung along the buildings, you could say that nothing had ever happened here.<em>

_"It's true when she said that there would be nothing else to do. I'm bored…" Reihan said to no one in particular as he stared at the night sky to alleviate his boredom._

_"What time is it now?" Lan asked, stirring awake from her sleep._

_"Night. We should get going now. you know I can't carry you when you're sleeping."_

_"Scared of me hitting you in my sleep?" she replied with a wry smile._

_"Those punches hurt. Anyway, let's get going now. I'm feeling really queasy." Reihan said and stood up after Lan scrambled onto his shoulder again. Taking a last look at the village, he turned and left the village, heading for the Forest of Magic._

* * *

><p>"Wake up. Wake up. Hello, Inryoku-san?" Lan said, rustling the body of her companion's teacher. "Are you really that unconscious? Hey Rei, I found her!"<p>

"In the name of whatever gods exist here, lower your voice!" Reihan stated angrily, wincing as if in pain. "Damn headache…"

"But I thought that you don't trust them."

"Someone knocked some sense into me to ensure that I would trust them for a while - plus a little side effect." Reihan stated, rubbing his temples vigorously. "Oww, my head…"

"Rei, you fell down from the height of almost an entire mountain! Of course your head would hurt!" Lan said, indicating the length of the drop with her hands. "I'm really curious how you're still living and breathing, though. Oh wait, you're-"

"Hey Lan, she's coming to. Get over here. Oww…"

Sounds of movement filled the room and a thump sound indicated that someone had landed on the ground.

"Ugh..." Eichi moaned, having just now awakened. _"Damn, I feel like shit."_

Rolling onto her side, she discovered that she was lying fully-clothed in her bedroom in her house. How did she figure this out? First off, she was lying on something soft which she assumed to be her mattress. Secondly, she had turned in the direction of her window which she never closes; bright light poured into the room and into the teacher's eyes, which by now were probably burning.

"Too bright..." she whined, immediately closing her eyes and rolling over onto her other side. _"I just wanna go back to sleep..."_

"Lan, tell me that she didn't just go back to sleep." Reihan said with a hint of annoyance.

"She just went back to sleep." Lan replied almost immediately.

"Well, I'm going back to get my things." Reihan said with a sigh. "You stay here and make sure not to do anything weird while I'm away."

"Sure!" Lan replied, clapping both of her hands together. "Be careful on your way out!"

The door opened and a crashing sound followed suit after that. Rubbing his head, Reihan reeled back for a second before coughing.

"Eh, didn't I just warn you to be careful on your way out?" Lan said.

"I forgot about the doors here."

"Doors?" Lan said as she crossed her arms and scooted near where Eichi was sleeping. "You knocked straight into the door frame! Are you really alright after the fall?"

When no reply was made by Reihan, Lan simply stood up and rose her voice in response.

"Hey, you better be careful!" The sentence was met with another smash outside, plenty of curses and the front door slamming into its frame. "Seriously, he's just way too stubborn." Lan sighed and knelt down beside Eichi.

"Are you awake or still sleeping, Inryoku-san? You were out since last night." Lan noted, poking Eichi's face repeatedly.

"So loud..." the teacher moaned. "You don't have to shout, you know."

"I am not really shouting, I'm just raising my voice a bit. Anyways, are you all right? You look as pale as Rei."

"Oh? Is that you, Lan-chan?" Eichi asked, attempting to push herself up into a sitting position to no avail. "Help me out, will you? Just go into the kitchen and grab me-"

A sudden wave of nausea overcame the teacher. Again rolling onto her side to quell the urge to vomit, Eichi couldn't help but feel that she had overdone it last night.

"Ugh. Grab me a bucket, my nightgown from my closet, and...a bottle of sake. Sake first." Eichi continued, now cupping her hands over her mouth. "Close the window while you're at it."

After pulling the blinds, the room were dimmed by a reasonable amount and Lan quickly scampered out of the room to grab what she was told.

"The sake is in the second cabinet from the right, ok?" Eichi added. "Thanks."

Stopping only for a second to hear the woman's comment, Lan continued out the door.

After fixing her sights on a row of identical cabinets situated directly over the kitchen sink, she veered towards them and pulled open the second cabinet from the right, reeling back immediately and closing the door after a quick scan.

"_That's the medicine cabinet, I think. Inryoku-san must be worse than I thought…so, I guess that means that it should be the second from the left._"

Lan then moved to the said cabinet and pulled it opened. After grabbing a bottle - which Lan showed a slight distaste for with her expression - she closed the cabinet and went back into the room, knocking before entering.

"Give me the sake, please." Eichi said, reaching out towards Lan.

"Hey, hey, Inryoku-san? Are you sick or something?" Lan suddenly asked, handing her the bottle.

"Uh...yeah." she replied, taking a hearty swig. "If you drink too much alcohol, you'll wake up like this."

"I'll rephrase my question. You said that sake would be in the second cabinet on the right, but there's no sake here. There's only a first aid box and strange bottles with strange contents. Are you sure that your mind is alright?"

"Uh...wait. Did I say right? I meant left. Second from the left." Eichi noted, taking another large gulp. "Sorry about that. I'm having trouble thinking straight."

_"Still, what's with all the medicine, or whatever those bottles were containing? They felt weird…better ask Rei later when he comes back._" Lan thought. "It's all right, I know how people can get after such a night. Are you feeling any better now?"

"Actually, yes." she replied. "The best way to cure a hangover is to drink more alcohol."

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, Eichi took one last pass at the sake before giving the bottle back to Lan.

"Well, I guess it only puts the sickness off for a while, but you get my point." she continued, shaking the bottle; Eichi always enjoyed the sound of liquid swishing around in a bottle. "You want some?"

"Actually, I would take a small sip if you don't mind." Lan replied and practically downed the remaining liquid inside the bottle, holding on to the empty bottle. "I'll get a bucket now. Plus your nightgown if you don't mind me scrambling around in your closet or wardrobe."

"Sure. Knock yourself out."

And she was out of the room immediately, leaving the teacher alone in her bed.

"_Hmm, where the bucket is…eep!_" Lan suddenly teetered sideways and righted herself with support from the wall before looking around the room. "_Rei? Nope, he'll be fine._"

Looking around in the kitchen, Lan checked through almost every cabinet in the kitchen which she had not checked before and was about to give up when she spotted what she was looking for under the sink. She knocked her head lightly a few times, threw the empty bottle into the bin and walked over to the sink.

"Ehehe, I'm too careless." she said to no one in particular, grabbed the bucket, and went back into the room, noticing another door beside Eichi's room before walking in and placing the bucket beside the bed.

"Here you go, Inryoku-san." she said, handing the bucket to Eichi. "Where's your closet?"

"It's that opening you see a la izquierda [to the left] when you come into this room." she replied with a silly grin, grabbing her cane from the side of the bed. "I'm feeling a bit better now, but I know that's only porque estoy emborrachado [because I'm drunk]. Oh well!~"

Lan responded by tilting her head to the side in confusion.

_"I should probably start making breakfast. I'm hungry."_ she thought to herself._ "I could really use some huevos [eggs], but creo que no los tengo. [I don't think that I have any.]"_

"Inryoku-san? Are you very sure that you're alright?" Lan asked while scooting over to the left opening of the room. "Although I am surprised you knew a third language. You never did show that you knew. And you should stay in bed for your own sake."

"Thanks for your concern, but I can at least get out of bed. I'm not tan enferma [too sick]." Eichi added, pushing herself up clumsily from the mattress; the cane was wobbling along with her. "And I know much more than three, pero eso [but this one] isn't really a 'language'. Think of it as a secret code entre amigos [between friends]; Reisen and I made it when we became really close friends. It's childish - sure - but I think that it's...eh..."

Eichi paused for a second, trying to scrape up some word from the dredges of her memory. For some reason, the word 'fun' just wouldn't come to her. It didn't help that she was already replacing terms that she couldn't remember, but this one seemed to stop her dead in her tracks.

"...anywho, no te preocupes. [don't worry about it]" she continued. "You want something to eat?"

"Okay, I'm feeling a little hungry myself…wait. You mean you are close friend with that bunny girl who visited about one or two days ago?" Lan noticed and skipped to the door. "How did that come as a surprise to me? Would you tell me about it?"

_"Wait...how'd she know that Reisen came over hace cuatro d__ías [four days ago]?"_ Eichi thought to herself, steadying herself. _"Best not to reply, I guess..."_

"_Thirteen pieces of planks, fifteen pieces of vines. What else am I missing?_" Lan thought to herself, before Eichi could answer her question; she shook her head and grumbled. "You forgot about the five pieces of cloth."

"Eh? A quién [to whom] are you talking?" Eichi asked, moving towards the young child. "Are you talking to yourself like Reihan does?"

"No, nothing!" Lan quickly shut her mouth using both her hands and scooted out to the living room.

"Uh...alright. Just hold por un momento [for a moment]." Eichi remarked, heading into the closet. _"Weird kid forgot my nightgown. Oh well, I can't blame her."_

Slipping off her formal attire, hanging up her vest and slacks, and promptly dressed herself in the silver gown. It's quite comfortable; the fabric is soft and plushy and there's a lot of room at the bottom to make sitting down easier.

"Alright then kiddo, what do you want to eat?" Eichi asked, stepping into the living room. "I think I have some huevos [eggs] if you want."

"And there we go, you missed out on a vine at the top." Lan was talking to someone outside the door but, from the way the door was opened and positioned, whoever was standing outside the door was well hidden from the occupants of the house. "And yes, I like some eggs myself. Thank you Inryoku-san!"

"Hey now. No invites a nadie [don't invite anyone] that I don't know." Eichi remarked, heading into the kitchen. "It's very rude and I don't have space for too many people."

"Nothing really. Oh, you're coming back? Take care." Lan closed the front door and gracefully strode to the table in a manner that seemed uncommon for her age.

"Who was that, Lan-chan? Is it a friend of yours?" the teacher asked, eyeing the area and eventually finding three eggs which were lying in a bowl off to the side of her sink. Searching around for more cooking instruments, she pulled out a large pan and placing it upon a small metal range. There were black rocks, otherwise known as charcoal, underneath it in a small compartment. All she needed was some fire.

"How many eggs do you want and how do you want 'em?" she continued. "I can make 'em scrambled, sunny-side up, and...that's about it."

"A friend of mine? You can say it that way, although I don't count him as a friend." Lan responded with a short chuckle. "And one egg is enough for me since I'm a light eater. I'll take any kind of egg you can make."

"Lan? Come out here and help me for a bit!" Reihan yelled from outside the house and Lan immediately jumped off the chair, keeping it in balance while doing so and rushed over to the door, which opened before she could touch it and slammed into something hard outside.

"Oops, sorry about that, Rei! I thought you were further from the door." Lan apologized with her hands on her head as Reihan stood up from the ground and rubbed his head.

"You know that I'm having a headache already…quit trying to give me a concussion."

"Hehe, Inryoku-san is making breakfast. Do you want some?" Lan asked and Reihan merely walked over to a chair and sat down. Lan shrugged her shoulders, closed the door and went over beside Eichi who had stricken a match and thrown into the charcoal chamber. After a second or two, a flame rose up and began to heat the top of the range. Small puffs of smoke billowed out from the opening, but it wasn't too much to worry about.

"Hey, it's Reihan-kun!~" Eichi sang, cracking the three eggs that she had; they plopped into the pan and quickly began to sizzle. "You two are inseparable, huh? Good for you to find yourself a girlfriend!~"

"I have no comments on that, sensei. Good to see that you are fine, as opposed to many others I've seen before after they've had too many drinks." Reihan yawned and laid his head on the table.

"Inryoku-san, can I talk to you after breakfast?" Lan asked in a whisper. "Necesito hablar contigo por un minuto. [I need to talk to you for a minute.]"

Eichi deadpanned. Staring at the eggs in the pan, which at this point were pretty much done, she felt a wave of anxiety crash through her body.

_"Shit!"_ she continuously repeated in her mind. _"Don't just stand there and seem suspicious, idiot! DO SOMETHING!"_

"Eh...I'm sorry. You'd probably want to talk to me when I'm less - eh - drunk." she continued, stammering slightly. "Would you please grab me some plates and forks?"

"Sure, but I prefer talking to you when you are - well - a little drunk since I have no one to talk to about it, and even if I have someone to talk to, they would just dismiss me and forget about it. In other words, I am frequently ignored." Lan moved over to the sink, plucked out three plates from the rack that holds them, grabbed three forks from a small drawer which took a while to find, and returned to Eichi, placing the plates beside the teacher.

"And also, don't you usually forget something when you've had too much alcohol? That's another reason too. I hope that no one knows, yet the longer I keep it to myself, the sooner I'm going to go crazy, or mad, or insane…whatever you call those symptoms." Lan continued and pointed to Reihan. "And he's out of question. Él ya está pensando sobre demasiado mucho. [He already has too much on his mind]"

"Did you say something about me?" Reihan muffled voice emerged from the table.

"Are you okay with one egg?" Lan asked. "I assume you had breakfast beforehand."

"I'm fine with it. Hand me something to soothe headache while you're at it…if you can find anything."

Having stealthily plated the eggs and tossed the pan in the sink, Eichi closed the charcoal-containing compartment; the lack of oxygen would kill the fire in a few seconds. She was a little bit disturbed at the recent turn of events, especially since she had seen these two a very suspicious amount lately, and decided that she could do no better than to try and get through her life without worrying about the particulars.

"Yeah..." she muttered, walking over to the small medicine cabinet that Lan had inadvertently stumbled upon earlier. "Go ahead and - eh - put those on the table, will you?"

She pulled out a small blue vial from the cabinet, buried deep behind her stash of green vials. Popping it open, a small puff of blue smoke escaped. Normally, a person would distrust any type of oddly colored smoke coming out of an unidentified container, but Eichi was a bit crazy like that. Walking back over to the table and pulling out a chair, the teacher sat down and slid the bottle across the table towards Reihan.

Inhale the vapor." she commanded, while Lan was still placing the plates on the table, somehow balancing them as she placed them down one by one. "You might feel - oh, what's the word? - light-headed, pero esto es normal [but this is normal]."

"You know sensei, I'm kind of worried…I mean, what medicine for headaches actually comes in the form of blue vapor? This is the first time I've actually seen something like this. But hell, anything to soothe the headache for now; I think I'll ask you about it next time." Reihan said and took hold of the bottle while doing as Eichi said, feeling a little better but still felt as if a massive hangover was berating his head.

"You feel better now, so shut up your whimpering and get to eating; you're going to visit someone, aren't you?" Lan said as she picked up her fork and started to eat while Reihan slid the bottle back across the table to Eichi.

"Yes, sis." Reihan managed as he picked up his fork.

"En serio, no sobrevivirás sin ayuda. [Seriously, you won't survive without help.]" Lan responded, rolling her eyes.

"You say something?"

"Nope." Lan replied, shaking her head. "Just eat your food; we're disturbing Inryoku-san from having her breakfast."

"You aren't. It's just that..." she began, pausing to make up her mind. "I just haven't been feeling like myself lately. I've been - eh - too jittery, I guess."

In a motion that was probably more forceful than necessary, Eichi rammed the side of her fork into the center of the lukewarm egg, bursting the yolk and sending a stream of yellow liquid into the base of the plate. From there, she shoved an entire half of the egg into her mouth and, with a somewhat reluctant glance, began chewing it. It was done well enough, but it was still a bit too runny. She'd have to remember that next time.

"Done, I'm out of here now. Intruding upon others' hospitality is something I can never get used to in my life." Reihan suddenly stood up and started for the door, having literally eaten the whole egg in one bite. "Anyways, best if you would take care of yourself, sensei."

"Inryoku-san." Lan said, waving her hands in front of Eichi to garner her attention. "Thank you for the food and the stay overnight. See you soon! Sorry for the abrupt leave."

Before a typical human reaction kick in, Lan was out of the door already, tripping over her own feet as she landed on the ground, prompting Reihan to stop, turn back and carry her on his shoulder before continuing to wherever they were going.

...And Eichi was alone. Hungover, drunk, and alone.

"Bastards found me." she muttered to herself, walking into the 'forbidden' room. She reemerged with a small burlap sack: faded but in otherwise good condition. Inside were five small black and white slips of paper, each with a similar symbol on them. The words might have meant something at some point, but nobody could remember that anymore.

"Lan-chan. How could you?" she continued, walking over to the medicine cabinet. "You're just trying to trick me. I can understand. I would do the same, and I have been."

Opening the cabinet, she grabbed every single green vial and shoved it into the bag. Pulling out a charm, she walked over to the door and stuck it upon the top of the door frame. It wasn't visible from the outside nor was it in a position where the door could catch on it.

"I didn't think that I'd have to use these, but I guess I have to." she muttered to herself once more, turning back towards her bedroom; no doubt she was still tired and probably wasn't thinking straight. "So, little fly, won't you come into my parlor?"

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><p>"It's starting."<p>

Lan tilted her head back as she sat on top of the temporary shelter made of planks and vines in a unique criss-cross way and stared at Reihan, who was playing around with two puppets while sitting on the ground.

"How…long do you have?" One could detect the concern in Lan's voice, although her facial expression shows no such emotion.

Reihan stopped what he was doing and placed the puppets back into a small sack. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the trees, staring out towards a lake which reflects the moonlight, the crescent already signifying the end of the New Moon.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, Reihan." Lan said again when she had no response from the man after a while.

Reihan turned back and stared at Lan with cold grey irises. Cold, dull and lifeless.

"When it turns full moon, my time is up. The first of my five senses had failed."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters (excluding OCs listed below) and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Original Characters (created by): Reihan Ten, Lan Ten (KuriaKai), Eichi Inryoku (Kerreb17)

Written by: KuriaKai, Kerreb17

21 November, 2011

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><p><strong>Kerreb17's Notes: Again, KuriaKai has no notes. I don't either, so I'll just leave it at that.<strong>

**Please leave a review and stay tuned to the rest of the story. I hope that you're enjoying this so far! Cheers!**


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